Remarkable new fossil-fuel engine design is 5 times more efficient and reduces emissions 90%

I think it's more likely in such a scenerio the Indians or Chinese would produce it just different enough to be legal.

This is assuming this works....why am I skeptical?

 

I think it's more likely in such a scenario the Indians or Chinese would produce it ... full stop.

 

Hi All,

This thing could work. But, it ain't going to be cheap when they make it work. The problem with rotary engines is the temperature of the rotor. Want high efficiency, and that temperature gets even hotter! So, that means that rotor has to be some kinda super metal (read that 10 times the nickel in a Prius battery), or ceramic (read that expensive machining).

What the guy is talking about is a series hybrid, the way the VOLT should have been done. That is what he is talking about all the reduction in parts. Remember he is presenting this to the general public, not Prius officianados who typically know about Hybrids (series, parallel, series/parallel - aka Prius).

The issue with turbines is that they are very high impedance, and not efficient at small sizes (due to the size of molecules of air).

So, to make a rotary engine has to find a lower impedance mechnism for ground mobile usage. He is talking about the wave transmission of the forces. I think they are going to do some sort of instantaneous compbustion (forgot the mnemonic for that) that works in wave action to transmit the energy to a shaft. Now, think about it, the instaneous combustion process can generate tremendous temperature, and a Piston engine is not ideal for that process, because piston crowns do not like wave peaks too much (over and over). So, an instaneous combustion engine might be better made as some sort of wave power transmission to get the energy into a shaft. And the advantage of the wave power transmission is you do not need tight fitting rotary seals (or any at all?) . Because the pressures involved push the rotor before the mass of the high pressure gas even reach the gap. Its kinda like tsunami engine.

Even so, this engine will probably be too high impedance to directly couple to a mechanical transmission tied to road wheels. So, the best way to use it is series hybrid. And that works because being rotary its very small for the power.

Anyway....it disappointing they have not demonstrated something by now. That thing he was holding in his had was a non-combustion prototype. As the rotor was just aluminum alloy, which would melt in actual engine usage. Engineers commonly make such devices to investigate the aerodynamics of engines, using low temperature compressed air as the power source.