How LiquidPiston's X Mini Wankel Engine means Rotary Engines for Drones, Range Extender and Hydrogen Vehicles

In the future, drones may be powered not by Lithium-Ion batteries but regular Ethanol Engines.

This as a smaller engine design, such as the Wankel Engine designed LiquidPiston may do the job as reported in the article “A powerful yet tiny engine inches closer to powering EVS and Drones”, published 06.14.16 by Jack Steward, Wired.

The redesigned Walkel engine is being created by Dr. Alexander Shkolnik is the president and co-founder of LiquidPiston. Based in Connecticut in the US of A, the firm has spent close to US$18 million designing a Walkel engine that can potentially be used in Drones and even Range Extender Vehicles as a Generator.

The advantage of the Wankel Engine is its compact design, which makes it possible to make versions as small as a smartphone. This is small enough to be used even on drones, potentially beating out Hydrogen Fuel cells for drones as described in my blog article entitled “Why Intelligent Energy’s Drone Hydrogen Fuel Cell will make 2 Hour flights a reality”. 

A smaller Engine for Drones could make it possible for a Drone to use conventional fuels such as Ethanol, or even propane, which would result in the drone getting lighter as if flew and extending the flying time way beyond 20 minutes.

In fact, because a Wankel Engine is so compact and uses traditional fuel, it could also be possible to design drones that can make their own fuel while flying as explained in my blog article entitled “@Airbus Group and the E-Fan – EU's Flightpath 2050 heralds All-Electric Aircraft as Fischer–Tropsch Process makes Kerosene Renewable”.

So what exactly is a Wankel Engine anyway?

The Resurrection of the Wankel Engine - LiquidPiston's X Mini Wankel Engine inside out design

A Wankel Engine is a very odd engine design indeed.

Developed by gifted self-taught Engineer Felix Wankel, the design replaces the traditional Otto cycle pistons driven by as camshaft with a large triangular camshaft rotating inside of a peanut-shaped chamber. Combustion occurs in interstices between the large triangular camshaft and the peanut shaped chamber.

Mazda dabbled with the design, due to its promises of higher speeds and more power for a smaller sized engine. However, their poor fuel economy and fondness for burning oil and failing CO2 emission tests means that they could not be used in anything beyond racing cars.

Their last test vehicles, the RX-8, was notoriously unreliable and they gave up on researching the technology in 2012 as noted in the article “The Last Mazda Wankel Engine Has Been Built”, published 6/26/12 by Jason Torchinsky, Jalopnik.

Enter LiquidPiston and their President and co-founder Dr. Alexander Shkolnik and some funding form DARPA (Defense and Research Project Agency). His idea is to reverse the design of the Wankel Engine to solve the fuel economy problems as well as change the type of fuel use in the design.

The result is the X Mini Wankel Engine, which has a peanut shaped camshaft rotating inside of a triangular-shaped chamber. Lubricating is done without the need to use oil, as the engine is engineered with materials that have been laser etched using a femtolaser so that they are self-lubricating.

This is very similar to the work of Dr. Chunlei Guo's of University of Rochester who used lasers to make metallic surfaces hydrophobic as explained in my blog article entitled “How Dr. Chunlei Guo's of University of Rochester makes Hydrophobic Metal Surfaces using Lasers”.

The result is a small compact 1000 horsepower engine small enough to power a drone for hours.

Dr. Alexander Shkolnik envisions it being used to power any system that needs electricity:

1.      Drones

2.      Electric Vehicles

3.      Generators

4.      Robots

5.      Submarines

Its main advantage is its size due to having less moving parts compared to the amount of power it produces. A 30 KWh generator weighs 1,000lbs with military versions weighing 3,000 lbs. Shkolnik's X Mini Wankel Engine can generate 30 KWh with a 400lb engine.

A lot of power in  small compact size with only one moving part; that’s the promise of Liquidpiston’s X Mini Wankel Engine!

Return of the Rotary Engine - X Mini Wankel Engine for Drones, Range Extender Vehicles and Hydrogen Vehicles

LiquidPiston can license their X Mini Wankel Engine to be used as the generator in Ranger Extender Electric Vehicles such as the Chevy Volt as described in my blog article entitled “How US$30,000 2016 Chevrolet helps GM innovate to avoid Tesla and Nissan” 

Even Mazda is excited once more, though their design for a Wankel Engine will involve the use of Hydrogen as the fuel and may be used in their own Hydrogen Powered Vehicles as noted in the article “Holy Crap Mazda's Working On A New Turbo Rotary Engine”, published April 4th 2016 by David Tracy, Jalopnik.

If all goes well, the LiquidPiston's X Mini Wankel Engine will mark the revival of the rotary Engine. It not only proves the design concept is only alive and well, but thanks to new manufacturing techniques, it may make drones fly longer, Range extender Vehicles Drive farther and Hydrogen powered Vehicles a reality.