H2Starfire engine: A new and insanely efficient type of rotary

New Atlas ^ | August 25, 2024 | Joe Salas

[Red Badger]

Astron aerospace has shown a partial prototype of a new rotary combustion engine it claims runs at an extraordinary 60% thermal efficiency, burning totally clean with zero NOx emissions and nothing but fresh water out of the tailpipe.

With internal combustion engines (ICE) on the way out and electric vehicles (EV) on the way in – both politically and environmentally – innovative ways of using renewable energy for clean transportation are at the forefront of many engineering minds.

Astron Aerospace has recently announced its latest novel innovative engine, the H2Starfire. It's a sort of Wankel-rotary design, but with an interesting twist: there are no planetary gears or apex seals. Instead, there are two counter-rotating shafts that have incredibly tight, frictionless tolerances, using ceramic coatings and titanium to prevent the escape of pressurized gas and mitigate heat deformation. We're talking 0.002-0.004 of an inch (less than 0.1 mm) tolerances.

The "H2," of course, stands for hydrogen – a gas that's notoriously difficult to store and transport. The most common method of producing hydrogen as it stands is steam methane reforming – cheap, but not green. You can also make it by splitting water in an electrolyzer using renewable energy, which makes it green, but not cheap. You then need to squash it to 700 times atmospheric pressure, or cool it close to absolute zero to store it – and even then, it'll boil off, and its tiny molecules will gradually sneak out straight through the walls of metal containers.

[SunkenCiv]

:^)

[sauropod]

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