Yeah nothing sucks more than throwing a rod. These engines probably would be safer than tuning conventional internal combustion engines.

GrimaceXL

@ripfire: I was actually wondering a similar thing, myself... read the treehugger article, and it turns out this is supposed to be an electricity generation device.

Dunno how successful this'll be, considering how gasoline is seen as evil, now.

PlayerX

If you try hard enough you can make anything send pistons flying. Like my old F150. That thing revved so high before it shifted, I thought it might actually explode.

bagellord

I bet someones going to try mod one of these for more power and then kill themselves with the ensuing flying pistons.

toejam316

If the goal is to take advantage of electric generation by internal combustion, then might as well use a series of micro turbines using diesel based fuel.

ripfire

dont tell anyone but Im inventing a thing called ....the rubber band

fastmike

ill stick to a 7.3L turbo diesel for now :)

ford4life

@fastmike:
cool man im a good drummer , never tried play a rubber one though give me a call if you need more members

xyzface

@ripfire:

i think they need to just throw a tweeked flux capacitator fueled by micro particles and sun tan lotion in there should sort it out.

xyzface

@FritzLaurel: Faster combustion != faster consumption

Faster consumption means there is less time for the hot gases to transfer heat to the piston walls, thus resulting in higher efficiency.

philibuster

I'm sorry, but how does "allows it to combust fuel quicker" translate into higher efficiency?

FritzLaurel

@ford4life:

7.3 turbo diesel? you driving a tractor or something?

kiwizz

Bah, pistons! Bring on the hydrogen rotaries.

rxe7en

@PlayerX: Hopefully it's mechanically efficient vs 'gas efficient only'. If the base mechanics are what set it apart other, cleaner, fuels could be used in it.

unspellable

somehow looks like a boxer engine, but that one has crank I think.

Crescent

You know, it always amazes me how many inventions were overlooked in the early 1900s just because businessmen couldn't figure out how to make money off them because they were so efficient or cheap to make. Designs like this are never "Lost" they are buried by corporations. I.E. Tesla's "free energy" project.

KLanD

@ripfire: But according to Ford and their reluctance to sell a 60+ MPG car in the US diesel has an ugly reputation, which I think is a complete load of horse shit! If you give Americans an option like that I'm absolutely sure it wouldn't take long at all for diesel to be more widely accepted.

venomous_duck41

@philibuster: I don't know... My R6 burns fuel pretty damn quick, but it's nowhere near efficient...

closhedbb

@KLanD:
I think some of that was also that a few of the ideas were ahead of the available materials at the time or the level of sophistication in manufacturing and machining.

strider_mt2k

@closhedbb: The Wankel engine is a nice piece of engineering, but isn't known for it's fuel economy prowesses ;)

J. Nadeau

@kiwizz: My thoughts exactly.

J. Nadeau

I really hate all the articles that bring crap like this up. They disrespect the people who design and build production cars and trucks. The people who make all of our lives possible through shipping and who live, breathe, eat, and sleep their engines and car design. Even if some crank comes up with a new idea it is a long way to develop it into a manufacturable, government epa and government crash test certified idea. This is the reason cars like the Tata air car and diesels over seas don't really make it to production in the U.S.

Respect PROFESSIONAL DESIGNERS they know their job cranks don't.

plemke1

@kiwizz: Ford truck diesel for most of the '90s and the first couple years of the '00s

Great engine, was replaced by a turd, which was replaced by another turd.

Tractors all use I-6s (or 4s), not v-8s.

If you want to cry about excessive, I myself will stick to my 8.0L Gas for the forseeable future.

RamV10

@undefined: @plemke1: I smell an industry shill.

Air cars are perfectly viable, the compressed air acting as a simple medium for energy transfer from power grid to engine. The Tata air car itself would never see the USA, but its engine technology might, and sooner than you think.

Diesel cars are even more viable. I know because I own a VW Golf TDI. Professional designers and engineers, such as myself, respect diesels for their high efficiency. The only reason we haven't seen more than a small amount of cars in the USA is mainly regulatory--our particulate laws are unjustifiably biased against small diesel cars; probably something to do with car industry lobbyists.

As for this particular technology, I fail to see why a posting a developing technology is disrespectful to people who design and build production vehicles. Change in the auto industry is inevitable, its just a matter of time before we run out of super-compressed dinosaurs. People with sentiments such as yours are misguided at best and disastrous for our economy and environment at worst.

egogg

@KLanD: The stirling cycle engine for example.

Nemesisesq

@plemke1: Explain this Luddite garbage you just spewed on this forum dedicated to the free exchange of ideas.

Nemesisesq

@FritzLaurel: Look up the difference between conflagration and explosion

Nemesisesq

But will it FLY? That's the real question!

EricAlder

@rxe7en:
why so you can have mini hindenburgs all over? rotards do nothing but blow up

bbnick

@plemke1: How about respecting a good idea no matter where it comes from? (I'm not saying that this engine is necessarily a good idea.)

LastAndLeast

@ripfire: It wouldn't have to be all petroleum. Once they're up to speed, you can run turbines on about anything. A fellow who worked for a turbine manufacturer told me they switched one over to coconut oil, and it ran just fine. Sadly, while the power to weight ratio is much better, the fuel efficiency of small turbines isn't yet as good as recip engines. Also, you either need an expensive, efficiency reducing gearbox or a rotor for a generator that won't throw itself apart at 20,000 rpm. I was thinking that casting a rotor in ceramic might work, but that could make life challenging if you ever had to change diodes.

JBanister

@plemke1: FAIL

MarlboroTestMonkey7

@JBanister: The turbine is not going to be used to mechanically drive the vehicle; it'll be used as a constant-load electricity generator to charge up a type of ultracapacitor which in turn will drive a DC motor. See here for the concept.

ripfire

@undefined:

Will it fly? Meh, the real question is, will it blend?

tomcod

there's been dozens of ways to change the internal combustion engine to make it more efficient (other than fuel injection) and none of them see the light of day. By the time they figure it out, we'll all be driving electric cars anyway (get used to it)

toyotaboy02

Wouldn't the magnets demagnetize if they are anywhere close to the combustion chamber? Nd-Fe-B magnets demagnetize at 170 F if I remember correctly; I don't know how hot the whole of the engine gets, but it seems like it might be a lot of effort to keep part of the piston assembly cool. It just seems like it might be easier to work with a simpler assembly like a star rotor engine.

bicolor

"Lets hope their forays into this don't take as long as their exploration of fuel cell options."

Fuel cells are great and all, but there's no way they'll be on the road any time soon. If these free-pistons are a viable option, it wouldn't take a massive infrastructure change to implement because there are already gas stations everywhere. Setting up hydrogen stations across the country would take a little bit of time to accomplish.

GTgeek

How would this wean us off gas and diesel? It still needs fuel to run. Furthermore, if I understand correctly this engine generates electricity that presumably would then power electric motors on the wheels. How is that an efficient use of fuel? Toph.

LelandPhrixus

Regardless of which solution eventually finds its way into mainstream America, from a practical standpoint I don't see this is being accomplished any time in the near future. Eventually I think we will see fully electric vehicles with electric "recharge" stations as plentiful as gas stations, but weaning the U.S. off gasoline will require a significant change to our infrastructure. Frankly I don't see it happening in our lifetimes, but maybe our children's lifetimes. Science always seems to underestimate how long it will take for new technology to become commonplace.

NoelZavala

@JBanister:

Magnetically coupled gear reduction boxes and magnetic bearings. Mechanically coupled gears wear out too fast.

Also, I've seen turbines with single solid rotors from a block of titanium. The whole piece, intake rotors, exhaust rotors. and shaft. Solid titanium.

FrankenPC

@bbnick: We eat apex seals, but I have yet to see one blow up. [www.h2daily.com]

rxe7en

@ripfire: Duh! Forget what I said. I need to read the whole thing before I open my mo.. I mean, type away.

ripfire

@LelandPhrixus: Because every inch of steel that connects your engine to your wheels sucks a little bit of power out of it. Electric motors at the wheel are very efficient because the power has a much shorter distance to travel. Combined with the fact that this type of engine burns fuel more efficiently you get a much more fuel-efficient car.

spawnofbill