Five times more than current

Electrification of all types of vehicles is here to stay. Ambitious decarbonization targets set by the European Union, including Spain, require rapid deployment of a mobile electric fleet, but Combustion engines have not said their last word And they can still make interesting improvements. Proof of this are developments such as the e-Rex, an innovative Spanish engine that achieves 80% more power and weighs only 35 kg, or a revolutionary material that can reduce polluting emissions from combustion vehicles by 90%.

These innovations have been added recently New concept of rotary engine, which have applications beyond commercial vehicles and are specifically designed for the military and aerospace industries. Its principals are LiquidPiston Engineers, an American company specializing in compact engines that just introduced the XTS-210, a two-stroke rotary engine that achieves an impressive power-to-weight ratio.

Developed after more than two decades of research on the topic and thanks to a $9 million contract from the US Army to study its military applications, The engine weighs only 19 kilograms, has an output of 25 horsepower and a capacity of 210 cc.. Thus, the main improvement over current diesel piston engines is a reduction in their size and weight by about 80%, while maintaining similar power. They are also quieter and require less maintenance than conventional motors.

Smaller and stronger

That was the goal of the LiquidPiston engineers “Rotated” concept of the Wankel engine. German engineer Felix Wankel invented this type of engine in the 1950s Internal combustion engines had a piston that drove the crankshaft with a gear, which was responsible for delivering the rotational motion. So, The fuel and air were compressed by a rotor, which rotated around the central prop shaft in an elliptical chamber.

Its success was swift, since only a few brands like Peugeot or Mercedes installed it on some models (as well as the DKV on motorcycles), although Mazda opted for it and capitalized on its potential for mass production for a while. they The main advantages were its small size, smooth running and high power-to-weight ratio.. Against them, they had a huge expense in gasoline, a high cost in maintenance and they were very polluting, which kept them out of the automobile industry.

Specifically, LiquidPiston solves all these shortcomings, and the result is the XTS-210, the latest generation of the X-Engine platform architecture, It was built from the ground up to deliver all the benefits of rotary engines and eliminate their drawbacks.

“We solved the main combustion and lubrication problems of the old rotary engines by converting their components into stationary components. These lubrication problems created obstacles in terms of durability and gas emissions. Also We optimize your cycle to give you a much higher efficiencyBack in the day, LiquidPiston co-founder and CEO Alec Shkolnik said in remarks collected New Atlas.

Thus, this new design consists of only two main moving parts: the rotor and the shaft, which reduces vibrations and significantly eliminates wear of parts. Thanks to its configuration, it can add up to one bar of boost pressure and operate like a two-stroke engine, producing Six combustion events per rotor revolution, capable of up to 7,000 rpm.

This means, translated into data by its makers after extensive testing, that the XTS-210 has 5 times the power-to-weight and power-to-volume ratios (energy density), and up to 3 times the torque-to-weight ratio compared to diesel piston engines of the same power. And that’s one of the primary design goals of the XTS-210 is to be ultra-portable, which means Reduced to the size of a basketball.

The engine operates solo or in hybrid electric mode, and can also be powered by the aircraft’s own JP-8/Jet-A heavy fuel. This enhances its potential in the field of military drones, as manufacturers continue to look for smaller and lighter alternatives to increase the range and payload capacity of their drones. It might be the engine too The core of generators and auxiliary power units for all types of vehicles Land, air and sea.

investigation

Those responsible for LiquidPiston have introduced various configurations of their X Engine in recent years, incl Four-stroke versions are naturally aspirated and range from 5 to 40 horsepower. To verify its efficacy, they conducted laboratory tests as well as cart tours, generators and drones.

The XTS-210 represents the culmination of this long evolution. “After nearly two decades of cutting-edge thermodynamic research with various types of rotary diesel engines, we are excited to come together with this latest generation. Our first model that we plan to bring to marketShkolnik says press release.

“The XTS-210’s reduced weight and size, as well as its ability to use different fuels, provide significant advantages in terms of final system usefulness, especially for the military, since Reduce the burdens of supply chain and logistics In an era when “energy on the go” is increasingly important, says the company’s founder.

It is planned that The first prototype is to be delivered to the US Army in 2024. And that’s not the only contract LiquidPiston has with the US military giant, which has also invested another $1.7 million in a motor to propel its VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) hybrid-electric drone. Thus, the Ministry of Defense can be considered one of the main “investors” in the company with contracts worth more than $ 30 million.

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