Cyclone Power Technologies and RTI Team to Advance and Commercialize Mobile Biomass-to-Power System
21 October 2009
Cyclone Power Technologies Inc. and Robotic Technology Inc. (RTI) have entered into a Teaming Agreement to advance the development and commercialization of Cyclone’s vegetative biomass-to-power engine system as it can be applied to advanced robotic platforms. (Earlier post.)
Cyclone’s prototype biomass-to-power generator is a self-contained, compact system that utilizes the company’s waste heat engine (WHE) to produce power from plant-based biomass combustion for use in a series hybrid subsystem in RTI’s Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot (EATR). RTI is currently developing EATR under a Phase II SBIR project sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) that will locate, harvest and process for the engine suitable vegetation in the environment to accomplish a variety of military missions without the need for manual or conventional re-fueling.
There are also numerous commercial applications for such an intelligent biomass-to-power system in border patrol, agriculture, forestry, natural disaster clean-up and recovery, and power generation in industrial or large-scale farming and logging settings.
At the core of Cyclone’s current biomass-to-power system for the proof-of-concept EATR is the patent-pending WHE, a six-cylinder Rankine cycle external heat engine capable of generating up to 15 hp of mechanical power. An attached vegetative biomass combustion chamber produces up to 600 °F of heat to run the WHE at peak performance. An alternator or generator then converts mechanical energy from the engine into as much as 10 kW of usable electricity. The entire system, including engine, heat exchangers, burner, electrical alternator/generator, and fuel hopper is mounted on a pallet for portability.
A higher horsepower, more compact version of the engine system is planned for the Phase III Commercialization of the EATR, to be placed within a prototype EATR vehicle.
There are many places using some form of biomass for heating especially domestic applications.Lesser density, remote underdeveloped.
I would like to see domestic home heating from biomass include this type of heat and power.
Manufactures may also find a market for heat and power terra preta charcoal combinations.
They can be low emission, high efficiency domestic designs, my incorporate use some form of catalyst.
energy independence for rural applications.
Many wealthy people in old blighty and around the globe still have 24/7 cooking and heating.
Also apartments, hospitals any.
Posted by: arnold | 21 October 2009 at 01:39 PM