FRANK EUGENE WICKS
Pilots at Nicholas Ave, Schenectady, NY

4680478, Jul 14, 1987

Dec 31, 1984

6/687813

Frank E. Wicks - Schenectady NY

F02G 502

290 2

The purpose of the Wicks Efficient Fuel Utilization System (WEFUS) is to produce electric energy and heat simultaneously in a fuel conserving and cost effective manner. WEFUS is a new and novel system that combines the fuel conserving technique of cogeneration with the fuel conserving technique of condensing heating so that the resulting combined system has an additional fuel conservation benefit relative to a system that uses only one of these fuel conserving techniques. The internal components are all conventional and include an internal combustion engine (15), an electric induction machine (17), a fan (18), a high temperature heat exchanger (20), a low temperature condensing heat exchanger (21), along with a controller (14), that controls the position of a solenoid controlled fuel valve (11) and a solenoid controlled electric breaker (13) in response to a signal from a thermostat (27) and conditional to signals from an electric power sensor (25) and unsafe condition sensors. WEFUS also has some inherent safety advantage relative to conventional furnaces since there is no large combustion chamber and additional safety advantages result from conditions that are sensed and input to the controller which then isolates the system from the fuel and electric power connections if an unsafe condition is sensed.

4813242, Mar 21, 1989

Nov 17, 1987

7/121878

Frank E. Wicks - Schenectady NY

F25B 2700

622383

The purpose of this invention is to cost effectively achieve more fuel efficient cooling and heating of buildings and also provide society with the resource conservation and environmental benefits that can result from the more efficient use of our fuel resources. The invention uses conventional equipment and includes an internal combustion engine and components that are now used in electric driven compression and steam driven absorption air conditioning and heat pump systems. The work from the engine provides a direct mechanical drive for the compression cycle and most of the rejected heat from the engine is recovered and utilized by the absorption cycle, which is achieved by recovering the high and medium temperature heat in the absorption cycle generator and recovering the low temperature heat from the engine exhaust by the mixture flow stream from the absorber to the generator. The result is a direct fueled engine driven combined cycle system that can be twice as fuel efficient as existing electric driven compression or steam driven absorption systems, and that can cost effectively replace most exissting systems in large building and provide substantial resource and environmental benefits.

5000003, Mar 19, 1991

Aug 28, 1989

7/399576

Frank E. Wicks - Schenectady NY

F01K 2310

60618

The purpose of the Wicks Combined Cycle Engine (WCCE) is to provide a very substantial fuel efficiency improvement relative to the liquid cooled, internal combustion, piston engines that are now utilized by virtually all automobiles, trucks, and buses, and most trains and ships. The method is to recover virtually all of the internal combustion engine heat that is normally rejected through the engine coolant radiator and through the engine exhaust, by a Rankine Cycle that is comprised of a feed pump, feed heater, boiler, superheater, turbine or other type of mechanical power producing expander and air cooled condenser. The reference analysis shows a potential efficiency increase from 25% for existing practice engines to 41. 8% for the WCCE.