That's the good news. The bad news is that it is fueled by two five gallon gas can.
Posted on 09/28/2006 10:15:48 AM PDT by Paul Ross
Engine on a chip
ISA InTech, September 28, 2006
Engine on a chip
A tiny gas-turbine engine inside a silicon chip about the size of a quarter could run 10 times longer than a battery of the same weight can, powering laptops, cell phones, radios, and other electronic devices.
It could also dramatically lighten the load for people who can’t connect to a power grid, including soldiers who now must carry many pounds of batteries for a three-day mission. All this technology can come at a reasonable price.
In the long term, mass production could bring the per-unit cost of power from microengines close to that for power from today’s large gas-turbine power plants, said researchers from MIT.
“Forty years ago, a computer filled up a whole building,” said Professor Alan Epstein of the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. “Now we all have microcomputers on our desks and inside our thermostats and our watches.”
While others are making miniature devices ranging from biological sensors to chemical processors, Epstein and a team of 20 faculty, staff, and students are looking to make personal power.
“Big gas-turbine engines can power a city, but a little one could “power” a person,” said Epstein.
A tiny fuel-burning engine on a chip? Think about it—an engine needs a compressor, a combustion chamber, a spinning turbine, and so on. Making millimeter-scale versions of those components from welded and riveted pieces of metal is not feasible. So, like computer-chip makers, the MIT researchers turned to etched silicon wafers.
Their microengine consists of six silicon wafers piled up like pancakes and bonded together. Each wafer is a single crystal with its atoms perfectly aligned, so it is extremely strong. To achieve the necessary components, researchers are able to individually prepare wafers using an advanced etching process to eat away selected material. When the wafers pile up, the surfaces and the spaces in between produce the needed features and functions.
Making microengines one at a time would be prohibitively expensive, so the researchers again followed the lead of computer-chip makers. They make 60 to 100 components on a large wafer that they then cut apart into single units.
The MIT team used this process to make all the components needed for their engine, and each part works. Inside a tiny combustion chamber, fuel and air quickly mix and burn at the melting point of steel. Turbine blades, made of low-defect, high-strength microfabricated materials, spin at 20,000 revolutions per second, which is 100 times faster than those in jet engines. A mini-generator produces 10 watts of power. A little compressor raises the pressure of air in preparation for combustion. And cooling (always a challenge in hot microdevices) appears manageable by sending the compression air around the outside of the combustor.
“So, all the parts work. … We’re now trying to get them all to work on the same day on the same lab bench,” Epstein said. Ultimately, of course, hot gases from the combustion chamber need to turn the turbine blades, which must then power the generator, and so on. “That turns out to be a hard thing to do,” he said. Their goal is to have it done by the end of this year.
Predicting how quickly they can move ahead is a bit of a challenge. If the bonding process is correct, each microengine is a monolithic piece of silicon, atomically perfect and inseparable. As a result, even a tiny mistake in a single component will necessitate starting from scratch. And if one component needs changing, the microfabrication team will have to rethink the entire design process.
That's the good news. The bad news is that it is fueled by two five gallon gas can.
Sweeeeeeeeeet.
Or they could look into some of Tesla's scientific ideas (not all of which would bear fruit) and see about wireless transmission of power.
I read about that a while ago.
It'll just fit into our newer generation of automobiles.......
Wireless transmission of power is already developed. In some remote locations they run whole villages with power beamed by microwaves.
I wonder what it uses for fuiel.
10W is a decent amount of power!
Imagine 1000 pennies with intake and exhaust channels built into a brick less than the size of a cinderblock. It's producing 1kw of energy and is one heck of a hybrid engine for the ultimate electric auto.
This nanotechnology was speced by DOD to power laptops, nightvision goggles, laser sights and all the electronic equipment that the 21st Century Centurion carries. And all powered by lighter fluid. The logistics nightmare of many varieties of batteries replaced by lighter fluid is outstanding. These military prototypes are being field tested and civilian applications are not far behind.
MIT only just announced that they have all the subcomponents working...but the trick still awaiting accomplishment is an integrated device, where all the parts work together...and do as their supposed to do!
Let's get down to the important stuff....when I can start using my trolling motor on my float tube?
that's an understatement.
This is almost unbelievable: 1,200,000 rpm.
10W is a decent amount of power!
I would be fascinated to see its efficiency compared to a thermoelectric generator run by a little alcohol lamp.
is it rope/pull start or electric?
But thank him for alternating current.
Or curse him depending on your viewpoint of DC vs AC. With DC we would have localised power sources, not subject to the national grid shortcomings. Although at the time AC seemedthe quickest and cheapest way to get power to the masses.
This is almost unbelievable: 1,200,000 rpm.
That IS unbelievable. Something's wrong here.
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