Tuesday, December 13, 2016

DARPA funds 30 KW X4 liquid piston engine that is 90 times lighter than a conventional 2700 lb military 30 KW diesel generator

http://ift.tt/2aB80ot
DARPA has awarded LiquidPiston Inc. $2.5 million to continue development of a new, patented, high-efficiency, lighter-weight rotary engine. LiquidPiston, a developer of advanced combustion engine technology, received the award for the first phase of a program to realize the full capability of its patented high-efficiency hybrid cycle (HEHC) engine. This is the second award DARPA has made to LiquidPiston in the past 18 months, following an earlier test program for a different LiquidPiston rotary engine prototype, which achieved promising results.

LiquidPiston will be developing its X4 test rig: a prototype 30 kW diesel X-engine, with targeted brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC) of 186 g/kWh (better fuel efficiency than heavy duty truck engines, and twice the fuel economy of a gasoline engine over a typical drive cycle). The X4 is designed for extremely high specific power, with an objective of 1.5 hp/lb, making it up to ten times (10x) more powerful than a standard diesel engine with the same weight.

The entire 40 hp engine is targeted to fit into a 10" x 8" x 8" box and weigh just 30 lbs. In this first phase of the program, LiquidPiston will build a test rig that will support future optimization efforts towards these objectives

A standard 35 HP diesel engine (left) next to LiquidPiston’s proof of principle 40HP diesel engine (right)

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Reposted via Next Big Future

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