Where does the combustion chamber go again?

That sounds like I can generate 2kW in less space than the alternator of my car? I am not surprised they still have to catch up on that part :o)

Promising though.

Regards,
Todd Lloyd
http://portablegeneratorinformation.com

Thanks in advance,
j

There are several manufacturers, see
www.airtoi.com -> jets
or check out this forum, pulsejets and turbines:
http://www.pulse-jets.com/

Ron van Sommeren
near Nijmegen, the Netherlands

If ICE had better power densities than turbines then they would still be on most airplanes.

One thing about gas turbines: These engines have a limited range of power and a very high use of fuel during idle. As such they could be very useful for hybrid type designs but for sticking in something like a wheelchair would be very bad as they would constantly have to start and stop or waste a lot of fuel idling.

Ah - last thing: I don’t know the exact size but RC jet engines have recently become available which are gas-turbines and they don’t look much larger than this, are you sure it’s a world record or did the company just assume it was like all the electronic companies do (such as when they say “world’s largest screen!” even though their competitor released on several inches larger the week before…

@RC: There actually is such a thing as power density, and it turns out to be an especially important metric in weight sensitive applications. A thing’s power density is its output (say, in Watts) divided by its mass (say, in kg). You may be surprised to learn that it makes no sense to speak of a fuel’s power density, since a fuel by itself doesn’t make any power. A few minutes on wikipedia could go a long way toward futhering your understanding of energy and power.

Brian Coffey
Vehicle Design Summit

2) WTF are “battery-powered” engines? Do you perhaps mean electric motors, powered by batteries?

3) Electric motors can be powered for as long as “fuel” is supplied, but few tasks are important enough to necessitate hot-swappable batteries. In fact they can run indefinitely, unlike turbines, which need to be taken off-line for periodic maintenance.

4) Turbines being “cleaner than reciprocating piston engines” is not necessarily true. Turbo diesel engines can get very high efficiency. Turbines hold the record, but that’s not necessarily the case across the range of possible form factors, fuels, and operating conditions.

5) There is no such thing as turbine or fuel cell “power density.” It makes no sense. Fuels, not engines, have properties of power density. Hydrogen is less dense than any other fuel (in fact any form of matter), but fuel cells can run on fuels other than hydrogen. More than that, power density isn’t an important metric at all, for any purpose.