In a CNET article this week, a Florida company called Cyclone Power Inc. has teamed with Maryland-based Robotic Technology to develop a self-fueling autonomous vehicle, or Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot (EATR), if you want to get technical. Cool, indeed, but not all that related to New England, unless you dig a little deeper.
The key here is that Cyclone Power is providing the vehicle’s engine, a kind of modern steam engine that converts heat to energy using most any fuel, from wood and biomass to traditional fuels. While Cyclone itself is participating in the EATR project, the company has also licensed some of its technology to Waste Heat Resources Inc., a Londonderry NH company that was launched earlier this year, working to add some of its own technology to the engine to produce a waste heat generator for use in high-heat industrial manufacturing processes.
Waste Heat Resources already has a couple of pilot projects in the works, I was told several weeks ago, including an ongoing test at the Grafton, Mass., plant of Wyman-Gordon, a maker of metal components for a variety of industries.
Engine technology has become an area of particular interest for me. As the nation, and world, move from fossil fuels to other energy sources, the traditional internal combustion engine is being seen more and more as a dinosaur. The fact is, the basic setup of those engines, from those powering lawnmowers and weed whackers to those in vehicles and even large ships, has gone unchanged for some time.
Exploration in this area is certainly needed, and a handful of inventors/entrepreneurs have been attacking the opportunity for some time. See West Springfield-based Scuderi Group LLC, which unveiled its prototype “split-cycle” engine to the automotive industry this spring, or ReGen Power Systems LLC in New Salem MA, which is using the Stirling principle to generate energy from waste heat within the engine.
