An Opportunity To Make a Truly Quiet Generator, someday.

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
Wanna revolutionize?

Extract CO2 from the air, release oxygen and render carbon fit for carbon fiber construction.

Or do what Audi has done and turn electricity, water and carbon dioxide in to diesel fuel

The engine is pretty neat- it is a rotary, but is not a wankle. It is more efficient than nearly any other type of internal combustion engine.

Speed can be changed through the "magic" of gearing (or a belt, if preferred). A little planetary gearset should be sufficient to mate this to a traditional synchronous generator. An inverter generator's alternator could be designed to run at most any convenient speed, of course.

The Mazda engines were not horribly unreliable, at least in the later iterations, if given proper care and feeding. They were not as low-maintenance as a traditional reciprocating engine, that's true. Overhauls were needed relatively frequently (to replace seals, if nothing else). There was a lot of engineering work needed to get seals that worked for a reasonable lifetime, and to cope with uneven heating and hence thermal expansion of the combustion chamber. For some military applications, engine life is not a big concern, particularly when compared with small size or light weight. If it's going into a cruise missile, for instance, the required engine life is measured in hours.

The Mazda engines, and indeed Wankels in general, are not particularly quiet. It may be that this new design is better in that regard if their claims about exhaust gas pressures are somewhat close to correct. It may also not be a strong point, particularly since they aren't touting it as a feature.

It's an interesting idea, and I certainly don't wish them ill in their development and engineering, but I won't be holding my breath for this revolutionary new engine to come and take over the world. There are many relatively easier things that could be done to quiet a typical RV generator with existing technology. In a lot of cases, simply improving the installation and mounting of the generator would make a noticeable difference. Improved exhaust systems would also help a good bit. Water cooling of air cooled generator engines would help some. These all cost money, but much less money than developing a new basic design of engine to maturity.

I wonder how they would be able to produce 60hz power at such speeds. The Wankel was an absolute dog at low rpm required for a conventional 2 pole generator.

3hp @ 10,0000 rpm. Seems like the engine better have some great lubrication spinning the fast. Hopefully better reliability the Mazadas rotary engine.

Wanna revolutionize?

Extract CO2 from the air, release oxygen and render carbon fit for carbon fiber construction.

MAZDA (cerca 1970) "The Car That Goes Hmmmmmmmmm".) A fuel waster. Impossible to rebuild. Joins Edsel, Bricklin, Yugo, and the Cadillac La Salle.

.

The military doesn't care about emissions or wasting fuel so they may not solve those problems.

Fuel cells are 23 Db, solar is silent. The future is now. :)

What am I missing? It's cool, but I'm not sure I'd call it revolutionary. It's a rotary motor that someone was able to make smaller. I assume they solved the hot exhaust and fuel waste issues too.

Hopefully it'll work out. But I'm old enough to remember Scientific American claiming we'd all be driving electric cars by 2000.