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posted by Fnord666 on Thursday July 05 2018, @04:51PM   Printer-friendly
from the we're-from-the-future dept.

Next Big Future reports:

Liquid Piston gets more DARPA funding for 30KW engine 30 times smaller than todays engines

DARPA has awarded LiquidPiston an additional $2.5 million to continue development of its 30kW X4 rotary diesel engine prototype, bringing DARPA's total funding of the engine technology to $6 million.

When development of the fully packaged engine is complete, the 30kW X4 engine is expected to weigh just 30lbs and fit into a 10" box, while achieving 45% brake thermal efficiency – approximately an order of magnitude smaller and lighter than traditional piston diesel engines, and also 30% more efficient. The efficient, lightweight, and powerful rotary Diesel/JP-8 X4 engine offers a disruptive power solution for direct as well as hybrid electric propulsion and power generation.

Seems we get a story about a wonderous alt-energy breakthrough every week that never pans out, can the humble Diesel engine be reinvented to become the "next big thing?"


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  • (Score: 4, Informative) by mobydisk on Thursday July 05 2018, @10:15PM

    by mobydisk (5472) on Thursday July 05 2018, @10:15PM (#703274)

    With a finite and shrinking fuel source, increasing efficiency is a good thing, no?

    Not according to Jevon's Paradox [wikipedia.org] which observes that greater efficiency increases consumption, rather than decreases it. Interesting, yah?

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