((PKG)) POWER GENERATOR
((Banner: Less Loss))
((Reporter: George Putic))
((Camera: Adam Greenbaum))
((Adapted by: Zdenko Novacki))
((Map: United States / Morgantown, West Virginia))
((Parviz Famouri, Professor, West Virginia University))
We are building electric generation system, about one kilowatt, that run on natural gas. The advantage of our system is it only has one moving part. So, the objective is to run 10 years continuously and the other objective is to run on 40 percent efficiency from natural gas to electricity. And the third is, it should be lower than 3,000 dollars.
And I believe our system will meet all those criteria.
((Courtesy: WVU))
The idea came when we were working on a hybrid electric vehicle and we were trying to put the engine generator under the hood and it wouldn’t fit. Since the piston has a linear motion, and my background is on linear electric machine, so we said why not just have the linear motion? So, by doing that, you don’t have the crank case.
((Courtesy: WVU))
((Parviz Famouri, Professor, West Virginia University))
The application could be from portable power generator or to home, basically with combined heat and power. You can put this in your HVAC system, your heating and air-conditioning system, and the heat would provide for the heater and then the electricity would provide for the home. The overall system, the volume is lower, is one. The other thing is, in rotary engines, the piston has a skirt that has higher friction, whereas this one is all aligned with lower friction.
