NIkolay Shkolnik says LiquidPiston’s X Mini rotary engine can double fuel economy, eliminate noise and vibration and reduce the size of engines by 30% to 75%. Check out the video: a four pound X Mini replaces a 40 pound standard engine in this go kart.
But whether it can move from the lab to the factory floor is another question entirely.
The company, which emerged out of Shkolnik’s doctoral thesis at MIT, is the latest to attempt to solve one of the more difficult and potentially lucrative puzzles in clean technology: remake the internal combustion engine.
Engines are ubiquitous. Global car sales topped 82 million in 2013 while the market for engines for power equipment comes to around $5 billion a year. (This smaller power equipment market is dominated by six manufacturers.) Consumers in emerging markets are also driving sales of scooters, small vehicles and cars.
The one thing engines aren’t, however, is efficient: Only around 20% of the fuel gets consumed in a productive way. 80% is dissipated as waste heat or friction.
“The last ‘big’ innovation came from Rudolf Diesel in the 1890s,” he said. “From a physics perspective, we are leaving a lot (of energy) on the table.”