A New Internal Combustion Engine Allegedly Produces Nearly Zero Harmful Emissions

[Xist]

"Allegedly."

Even Elio had more than a photoshop model.

https://carbuzz.com/news/strange-new...nd-eight-seats

[RedDevil]

Late to the party, but I really like this engine design.

In conventional engines the pistons have 4 distinct tasks: draw in fresh air, compress it, convey the pressure of the combustion phase to power on the crankshaft and push out the exhaust gas.

But this engine has no pistons. Instead it has a pair of single-toothed gear pumps and a rotating valve to transfer the compressed air to the combustion side at precisely the right time.

The beauty of the design is that it is very efficient. The compression is done by the notch on the first pair; it pushes straight in, without sideway motion or forces.
Likewise the combustion pushes against the notch on the second pair, again driving it round in the direction of movement.
It is pure torque to compression and pressure to torque.

The difference with ordinary gear pumps is that one of the 'gears' does not have teeth at all' instead it just has a gap. Unlike in a gear pump that 'gear' is housed tightly and no air passes around that gear.
All air moves with the notch on the other gear until it meets the part where both wheels touch and it can go no further, getting compressed until the gap in the rotating valve allows it to the combustion side just in time.

There the notch has just lifted out of the gap, opening a steadily increasing combustion chamber. The gap in the rotating valve moves away, the spark plug ignites the gas, the pressure rises and pushes the notch forward - until it passes the exhaust port just before dipping in the hole of the other gear again.
On its next pass it will push the exhaust gas out of the chamber while being pushed forward itself by the next combustion cycle.

So how can this engine be so light, yet so powerful?
- It is quite simple. It only has rotating parts on 2 counterrotating axles, nothing else. No camshaft, no crankshaft, no pistons swinging up and down.
- It is nicely balanced. Because it only rotates it should not vibrate much.
- It can rev like crazy. 25K RPM... Plus every single rotation is a combustion cycle, much like a 2 stroke engine - which this isn't, for the lack of strokes.
- There should be very little friction. No sliding motion, no metal parts swinging back and forth, no pushing at an angle on connecting rods.
- Heat management should be simple as there would be no need to cool the part of the chamber where the combustion takes place. The hotter the better, I guess. The gear wheel should probably remain relatively cool to prevent premature combustion.

Sealing the valve wheels to prevent gas moving past the notch, between the gears or past the bearings is important. Yet as it only turns it can be made to fit very tightly, especially when metal with al low thermal expansion coefficient is used or when (if all else fails) care is taken to heat the gear chamber to match the temperature in the notch so they expand likewise.

This is a deceivingly simple yet very clever engine. I wonder what will come of it. This could be part of a tiny yet effective range extender for EVs...!

[aerohead]

Originally Posted by freebeard

I thought you might like it. The metering is via the backside of a D-shaped profile that draws in fuel into the airstream. And it has a slide valve instead of a butterfly, what does that do to pumping loses?

It reminds me of the notorious Fish carburetor.

Fish Carburetors – Ross Carburetors

Similar performance claimed, and altitude compensation. Six to ten discharge point is one difference.

They call it smart but it isn't an Internet of Things play.

All my motorcycles had cable-controlled or vacuum diaphragm-controlled slide-valve/ metering rod carbs.
Aerodynamically, I don't think that they're any improvement.
The hydro-electric dam bullet-valve and Junkers JUMO 004 jet turbine bullet- valves are probably the zenith of low-drag valve technology. I chose a facsimile for Spirit's cooling system.
The FISH carburetor lived up to some of the claims.
Push the vehicle up to 35-mph, bump-start the engine, and drive at 35-mph. There was no provision for acceleration or deceleration, just 35-mph.

[freebeard]

The hydro-electric dam bullet-valve and Junkers JUMO 004 jet turbine bullet- valves

If you have the [citation needed] you should submit it to Wikipedia. Their Jumo 004 entry has no mention.

Although it does cover my favorite starter --the two stroke APU with a pull handle. ...and the variable geometry Zwiebel:


On the original topic.I still struggle to explain the way it employs the Brayton Cycle. Apparently there is a high bypass airflow through the rotors' open hub, with each rotor being arrayed like the combustion chambers in a centrifugal flow jet engine.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Even though the Brayton cycle became so dominant on airliners, and AFAIK has some usage on ships too, it won't be so soon that it will eventually make its way into the car market. Even if the ICE retains a long-term foothold through hybrid tech and synthetic net-zero fuels.

[aerohead]

Originally Posted by freebeard

If you have the [citation needed] you should submit it to Wikipedia. Their Jumo 004 entry has no mention.

Although it does cover my favorite starter --the two stroke APU with a pull handle. ...and the variable geometry Zwiebel:


On the original topic.I still struggle to explain the way it employs the Brayton Cycle. Apparently there is a high bypass airflow through the rotors' open hub, with each rotor being arrayed like the combustion chambers in a centrifugal flow jet engine.

I believe that it's the book, 'General Motors and the NAZIs', and GM's alleged involvement inside NAZI Germany during WW-II that showed the Junkers jet engine built by GM's Russelsheim, Adam Opel AG factory.
An X-ray photograph illustrates the rack and pinion control which moves the bullet valve in and out of the tailpipe, as a function of desired thrust, just as in a hydroelectric turbo-generator Pelton-wheel, these valves control the water jet impacting the buckets.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Odd enough, even though Henry Ford II became a WWII Veteran, his grandfather had some sympathy for Hitler, and went as far as looking for compensations from the Allies for damages to Ford-Werke plants in Germany. But anyway, accusing GM of a direct involvement with the Nazis is quite a complex matter.

[freebeard]

quite a complex matter.

Good thing it's history instead of politics, so we can discuss it in The Lounge.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by freebeard

Good thing it's history instead of politics, so we can discuss it in The Lounge.

But it would eventually intersect with politics anyway. Well, it would be hard to state that Opel under GM ownership didn't have any Nazi sympathizer on its board of directors, even though in Nazi Germany the local branches of American companies would be taken over at any time without prior notice, in a similar way to how GM in Venezuela had its factory taken over by the local dictatorship. Even if an American company could either recover its assets or be paid for their loss or war-inflicted damages after the war is ended, it's always a risk to keep an asset in a war zone controlled directly by the opposite contender.

[Xist]

"The reaction between aluminum and gallium works because gallium removes the aluminum oxide coating that would otherwise form when the material comes in contact with water. When the researchers ran measurements on their experiments, they showed that the formation of aluminum nanoparticles during the reaction accounted for the very high rate of hydrogen production."

"[N]ot only does the gallium dissolve the aluminum oxide, it also separates the aluminum into nanoparticles. "The gallium separates the nanoparticles and keeps them from aggregating into larger particles.'"

"People have struggled to make aluminum nanoparticles, and here we are producing them under normal atmospheric pressure and room temperature conditions."

interestingengineering.com/method-hydrogen-from-aluminum