![]() ![]() In 2010, Shannon Miller, Adam Simpson, and I incorporated Mainspring Energy to build a real-world system. Now we had to build a version that could generate electricity and run for years at a reasonable cost. The device was efficient as a fuel cell, just as we had hoped. But we could use it to measure the efficiency of the reaction, meaning the extra push that must be applied to the moving wall during expansion relative to how much fuel was used. ![]() Our first device was very simple-it could run only one “shot” at a time, and it did not produce electricity that is, we did not harvest the energy produced. I’ll discuss in a moment the limitations of this type of engine architecture for this kind of reaction, and how we solved them with a new type of machine. ![]() This arrangement works like a piston that compresses a gas inside a cylinder in an engine, although that’s where the similarities end-the “piston” in our device was not attached to a crankshaft, or to anything at all. We used a metal tube two meters long and 50 millimeters in diameter, with a closed wall on one end and a metal slug as the moving wall. To test it out, in 2008 we constructed an apparatus capable of compressing through a volume 100 times that of the starting value, then expanding back again. Once these walls reach their initial position, and the pressure within the chamber reverts to its initial state, a new batch of fuel and air flows in, pushing the molecules created by the previous cycle out of the chamber and starting the process all over. The pressure pushes the walls outward with more force than that needed to push them inward at the beginning of the cycle. It all happens without a spark or any other ignition source. That energy causes the new molecules to collide even faster and more often, not just with themselves but also with the walls of the chamber, raising the pressure in the chamber. As this happens, the molecules within the mixture collide faster and faster, until they at last break apart and re-form into different molecules, releasing the energy stored in their chemical bonds. Next, those end walls move toward each other, compressing the mixture of fuel and air. Here’s how that would work.įirst, fuel and air enter a closed chamber with movable end walls. We knew that we could trigger the release of energy simply by compressing a mixture of air and fuel. ![]() But fuel cells use catalysts to trigger the chemical reactions that release energy, and catalysts typically cost a lot, degrade over time, and respond poorly to rapid changes in load. We started by considering fuel cells, since they can be very efficient. students a simple question: “What is the most efficient and practical way possible to convert chemical-bond energy into useful work?” Stanford University’s Advanced Energy Systems Laboratory, when mechanical engineering professor Christopher Edwards asked some of us Ph.D. The story of the linear generator began nearly two decades ago at We expect linear generators at many more locations to come on line within the next year. It is currently installed at tens of sites, producing 230 to 460 kilowatts at each. Mainspring Energy, of which I am one, spent 14 years developing this technology, and in 2020 we began rolling it out commercially. And it’s not a fantasy it’s been developed, tested, and deployed commercially. It has the potential to make the decarbonized power system available, reliable, and resilient against the vagaries of weather and of fuel supplies. Switch between different types of green (and not-so-green, if need be) fuel, including biogas, ammonia, and hydrogen. It’s consuming that ammonia in a linear generator. It doesn’t matter that it’s been raining for two weeks because your utility is tapping into ammonia produced with last summer’s sunshine. It’s January 2030 and your electric heat pump is warming the house while your electric car charges in the garage, all powered by solar panels on your roof and by wind and solar generators at your local utility. ![]()
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