POWERFUL Free Piston ENGINE Sets Records- Is it REAL!?

An interesting video with useful information. The Mainspring engine does control the peak combustion temperatures that cause NOx with a “FLAMELESS OXIDATION PROCESS” that in some different industries can be denoted by the term “FLOX” (which is more appropriately used for combustors). Mainspring's 'flameless' linear generator can use any fuel to generate power as per their marketing. If I understand the flameless oxidation process correctly and if it follows the FLOX combustion process then the peak temperatures are controlled by the position of the linear piston. FLOX requires the air and fuel components to be mixed in an environment in which exhaust gases are recirculated back into the combustion chamber. Flameless combustion also does not display the same high energy peaks as the traditional combustion observed within a swirl burner, resulting in a more smooth and stable combustion process. When combustion occurs, NOx is formed at the front of the flame: suppression of peak flame offers the theoretical possibility of reducing NOx production to zero. Experiments with FLOX-Technology have established that it can reduce the amount of NOx generated. The reason that I mention this is that Hyliion’s Karno engine also is a linear actuator and is also marketed as using a flameless oxidation process. The difference is that the Karno engine is “probably” a Sterling engine (or variant) that has actual combustors and an external combustion process vs Mainspring’s internal combustion process. The marketing info put out by the respective company’s suggest that the Karno engine might have higher efficiency. Hyliion is working on using the Karno as both a range extender (usually in pairs thus helping with external vibration) and for fixed generator applications.

Vibration issues are simple to solve, reduce the size and double up on the actual engine with opposing strokes. It's not an issue and increases/doubles the points of generation...

why four stroke? it looks like an ideal case for a 2 stroke the way a diesel 2 stroke work, with pressurized-air cylinder loading and internal injection, missing something? A cheap engine like this seems ideal for range, efficiency and pollution control in plug in hybrids, saving a lot of lithium for other uses

Been a fan of free pistons for a while. I’d like to see more 4 cycle designs coming out as I don’t see hydrocarbons going away. Energy density is just too attractive. Hopefully they will be greener sources.

Can it work on bio-mathane (or biogas directly) to compress cleaned bio-methane to 250bar?

New ideas are the best 👌

Counter shaft would help alot but its coefficient drag.

I'm a tinkerer of sorts and I have been using peltier device and magnets I think I have stumbled on to something by electronically alternating magnets polarity I find that I can make my unit run smoothly at higher speeds with less vibrations.

I like the opposed piston design .

It is better to have tuned variants that run on fuel groups because there are regional differences in fuel availability. Instead of trying to make one engine do everything. You get peak performance that way.

Could we use ammonia or cng in fuel cell , reach higher efficiency ?

Totally wild tech! I like the idea of combustion engines in cars, but I do love electric cars torque. This would be a nice compromise. 🙏🏻 🇦🇺🤜🏼🤛🏼😎🍀

So what efficiency are we talking about?

Nice video. Why is the world addicted to reciprocating pistons? Rotary design inherently solves many problems of efficiency, vibration, complexity, reliability and cost. Not Wankel, not impact, not airfoil. Tesla's air friction turbine showed the way forward was fluid adhesion, although his design was inefficient. I'm surprised he didn't see the logical next step in geometry for increasing efficiency.

Well it still needs to convert this to torque

Imagine putting this on a bike a hybrid motor bike

The JACK-O-LIGHT!

Libertine is the way to go, the alternator power should be around 25kW, supercapacitor and """small""" battery The idea is to have the possibility of storing energy during braking and going down slopes, using a 25 kW generator, the motor could make 100 kW giving strong acceleration if necessary but without the weight of a full electric battery, in fact, the efficiency of such a system will be maximum (especially in winter when heating is necessary) Actually with gas motor energy cannot come back, so not only the efficiency is low (rarely more than 35%) but a lot of energy is lost. Libertine is light (and will become lighter if using carbon wire for the induction in the future, by running always with the same load and because much less frictions it can be easily optimized and an efficiency of 50% seems to me possible more with hydrogen but considering the fact that each back and forth create energy and that energy is taken back then the real efficiency to the wheels will be very optimized

Why don't they have a crank at each end that way they could have a generator at each end.

make it similar to a boxer engine you will solve all your problems. have four times as much electricity running through it just shrink the size of the diameter of the piston.