Crazy-Efficient Rotary Engine Lands Million-Dollar DARPA Contract

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We love when a tiny company does big things.

LiquidPiston, Inc., of Bloomfield, CT, recently signed an agreement with the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, better known as DARPA, to use the hyper-efficient rotary engine technology for military purposes. The advanced combustion tech could be used in weaponized UAVs, robotic soldiers, and generators that produce 3kW of electric power—but fit in a backpack.

Father-and-son team Nikolay and Alec Shkolnik say LiquidPiston can dramatically downsize combustion engines used in military scenarios. The Shkolniks say that their motor can be adapted to use only Jet Propellant 8 (JP-8), the fuel favored by the U.S. military, to produce power in a small, quiet, and efficient package.

"A diesel generator that's the size of a desk and weighs 300 pounds becomes a 2-foot-square engine that generates the same power," Alec Shkolnik tells.

A typical 3kW gasoline-powered generator—the type used at construction sites and as a stop-gap during power outages—weighs about 140 pounds and measures about 3 feet long, 2 feet high, and 2 feet wide. The military uses such generators in remote areas, but they are ungainly beasts. Shkolnik says LiquidPiston's equally powerful generator using JP-8 would weigh about 30 pounds (the motor itself would weigh just 8 pounds) and fit in a backpack. Used in drones, the LiquidPiston engine could be small enough to fit inside the envelope of the fuselage.

"We see a lot of potential military uses, including robotics," Shkolnik says. "We're going to work with DARPA to make hardware improvements to our motors, and model them for scenarios where full-size combustion engines could be replaced."

DARPA Project Manager Mark Gustafson, who has led high-profile projects for the military such as the $6 billion propulsion system for the F-35, sees great promise in the LiquidPiston technology.

"INSTEAD OF A PISTON ON A CRANKSHAFT YOU HAVE LIQUID PUSHING UP TO COMPRESS THE GAS-AIR MIXTURE."

"The nation would benefit greatly from the development of a high-power-density, energy-efficient engine that could operate on heavy hydrocarbon fuels," he tells. "We are excited about the plans to develop and test key technologies that could help achieve that goal, and look forward to LiquidPiston's efforts to accelerate progress in this important field of work."

LiquidPiston emerged two years ago as a novel alternative to conventional combustion engines. "The LiquidPiston engine fires like a combustion engine," Nikolay Shkolnik says. "But instead of a piston on a crankshaft you have liquid pushing up to compress the gas-air mixture."

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A more extensive explanation of the LiquidPiston motor, and its benefits, was published by Popular Mechanics upon the introduction of the technology. You can read it here.

In addition to its collaboration with DARPA, the company plans to market power tools for home use, such as lawnmowers, chainsaws, and string trimmers. These products will be on shelves at your local Home Depot and Lowe's two or three years from now, Alec Shkolnik says