Posted on 03/09/2021 1:40:19 PM PST by DUMBGRUNT
A major national supermarket chain, one of the Fortune 500 customers in Mainspring’s pilot program, has signed an agreement to expand deployment of Mainspring Linear Generators to power up to 30 grocery stores. Mainspring began shipping pilot units to multiple Fortune 500 customers in June 2020 and expects to begin commercial product shipments in mid-2021.
...Mainspring’s breakthrough technology, based on research originally conducted by the company’s co-founders in a thermodynamics laboratory at Stanford University, is designed to meet these demands by delivering dispatchable, fuel-flexible power that substantially reduces cost and carbon today, while accelerating the transition to the net-zero carbon grid.
Mainspring’s generators are designed to produce electricity with utility-scale performance in the size of a parking space, while meeting the strictest emissions standards in the world.
The design of Mainspring’s Linear Generator uses a low-temperature reaction of air and fuel to drive magnets through copper coils to efficiently produce electricity. This innovcative design, combined with the company’s proprietary adaptive control software, enables high efficiency, near-zero NOx emissions, full dispatchability, and seamless switching between fuels.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
This new technology would need to demonstrate increased efficiency over existing thermal generation units. Until then, I will wait for data supporting such.
OH MY!
And I was planning to go to bed early tonight?
They cover most of the possible options without selecting any.
M E G O!!! My Eyes Glazed Over!
—” That’s because the generators combine fuels with oxygen in a central reaction cylinder between their two oscillators, and then use the rising pressure as those two oscillators are pushed back inward by the air springs at either end to create a “uniform and flameless reaction” to release energy. “
My guess: Compression ignition / catalytic methane combustion.
Premix and preheat the fuel, pump it over this catalyst and into the cylinder...
Thank you for the patent link.
I will catch up on my sleep next winter when the nights are longer.
If anyone knows how this device actually functions, PLS send it over.
Thanks
A smaller spark ignition version.
3 kW would carry my house 99% of the time...
Ping!.................
—”Heat. Compressing air raises its temperature, “
No disagreement.
“HEAT, THE GRAVEYARD OF ENERGY”, or something like that?
I was almost awake in that class; it was early.
Recalling the notorious Cadillac 8-6-4 among others.
Variable displacement via fuel management.
I’m doubting the influence on the system.
Guessing as usual and, do not actually know.
PLS help!
Variable displacement via fuel management.
How could anyone forget the goofy valve covers? (I DID!)
They had a solenoid that deactivated the valves keeping them closed, pumping loss, and all that stuff.
The Jake brake!
And compression release on racing bikes...
—”A detailed study of a cylinder activation concept by efficiency loss analysis and 1D simulation”
...In most of the current cylinder deactivation designs, both the air and the fuel supply are switched off for the inactive cylinders. For this purpose, usually the intake and exhaust valves of these cylinders are deactivated, which eliminates the gas exchange losses. In addition, the gas trapped inside the deactivated cylinders acts as a pneumatic spring, resulting in only minor in-cylinder process losses, mainly due to heat transfer to the combustion chamber walls. As there are no gas forces due to combustion in the deactivated cylinders and piston, lateral forces are, therefore, significantly reduced, friction loss is also comparatively low...
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s41104-020-00070-1
Thanks. Yeah,if it is cycling fast enough, it is adding heat/removing heat fast. Might mitigate the overall heat transfer losses.
Still waiting for my buddy the thermo guy to email me back...he’s an absolute expert.
Sounds like an adaptation of a Bloom Energy box.
—”Bloom Energy box.”
Is a straight-up fuel cell.
Mainspring is a mechanical device, with pistons.
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