Israel Develops Piston-less Engine - Potential 100 MPG

yidwithlid.blogspot.com ^ | January 23, 2009 | Yid With Lid

[Free ThinkerNY]

Here a good news energy story from one of the few countries in the Middle-east not trying to screw us via petroleum costs

Agam Energy Systems, an Israeli company has developed a piston-less turbine engine, featuring a new kind of compressor that has the potential to revolutionize the automotive industry. The engine will consume 1/5 of the gas and emit 1/10 of the pollution. The engine is compatible to engines presently being used and could be retrofit into today's models:

American automakers are already taking notice, the company reports.

Agam's chief technology officer and visionary is Dr. Gad Assaf, a physicist in energy and thermodynamics, who worked for the successful alternative energy company Ormat. According to Ofer Spottheim, the business development manager at Agam, Ormat considers Assaf to be one of the most creative minds in the business.

And while Agam's engine has passed feasibility studies, it's still in R&D. It could be ready by 2012 if a significant investment is made: "All the western world probably wishes it were ready right now," Spottheim tells ISRAEL21c.

Now in touch with one of the world's biggest manufacturing companies, Agam is hoping for the stars to align so that it can get the strategic partner it needs to shift into high gear.

[anniegetyourgun]

Wow - between this and the recent natural gas find in Israel....

[ken21]

yeah, right.

if true, it won’t be seen during my lifetime.

[Moonman62]

It could be ready by 2012 if a significant investment is made:

In other words, there is some major drawback we're not being told about, and this thing will never see the light of day.

[WackySam]

Agam says it has solved the problem by creating a revolutionary liquid ring compressor that achieves a much higher mechanical efficiency.

I'm not an expert, but I'm pretty sure a mechanical method would not be enough to extract that much more energy from a gallon of gas. It would most likely take a heat to energy conversion to achieve those numbers. I hope I'm wrong.

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

That thing will make a hell of a gyroscope. Good luck changing lanes!

[Squantos]

HELPING OUT RED BADGER'S PING LIST !

Rest In Peace, old friend, your work is finished..... If you want ON or OFF the DIESEL ”KnOcK” LIST just FReepmail me..... This is a fairly HIGH VOLUME ping list on some days.....

[Vroomfondel]

a piston-less turbine engine

When's the last time you saw a turbine with a piston?

[Captain Beyond]

bump for later

[annelizly]

boy, i remember when america used to be where new inventions and technology were invented.

Its nice that somewhere in the world bright, fresh ideas are encouraged.

[WildcatClan]

Cynics all. I wish I could buck the trend but I cannot. Until I can hold it in my hands and see for myself it will be the same old snake oil I have seen a hundred times.

Turbine engines go, that is what they do. When you are stopped at a light or for any other reason, that is when the flaw of the turbine as a car engine is made clear. I hope to be wrong but logic tells me I am not.

[walford]

The lady announcer needs to contain her excitement better.

[Secret Agent Man]

It almost appears to be a type of jet engine for the car.

[Ciexyz]

If it sounds too good to be true....

[MAD-AS-HELL]

that’s Israeli women for you. They have perfected that bored drone. It doesn’t get much better when they are in the sack either. Total boner killer! :P

[wastedyears]

Horsepower?

[ozzymandus]

Turbines? Again? But I’ve almost perfected my pills that turn water into gasoline! The only bug left is that it destroys the engine in about 50 miles, but all I need is a major investment.

[BobbyT]

Plymouth made a turbine-powered car back in 1960 or so. I think Leno has one. It put out something like 150 horsepower but over 500 lbs-ft of torque. Idle at 20,000 and redline around 40,000.

The pros are that you can install a smaller lighter turbine, you have many fewer parts, fewer moving parts, less maintenance.

The cons are that turbine efficiency increases with scale (ideally your turbine would be the size of a building), so any car-sized one is giving up some efficiency. Also, they’re very good at producing constant power at a fixed speed, but lousy at changing speeds...which is what you do constantly when you drive around town.

If you hooked one up to a continuously variable transmission I bet you could solve a lot of that. The engine would simply run at idle, very efficiently, as your CVT altered gear ratios and you drove around town quite sedately. When you hit the throttle, let the engine rev up towards redline and you can have constant high power output.

[JOLLYDODGER]

If it sounds too good to be true....
Bernie Madoff is behind it.

[Westlander]

Nothing to see here. GM will buy the rights and bury it like they did the Wankel.