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The Mazda rotaries have traditionally worn out prematurely (needing rebuilds after 80-100k because of oil leaks), and they get relatively poor fuel economy. The design has a slightly higher power/weight ratio, but that specific advantage doesn't outweigh the many disadvantages.

I'm watching the MYT engine, which is a swing-piston engine. Raphial doesn't want to sell out to someone who'd kill it or bury it, and hasn't found anyone to loan him enough to get his factory off the ground.

This guy is looking to get rich quick not contribute to human knowledge

Agreed. He is a toned down version of the guy that invented the MYT engine. http://www.angellabsllc.com/mytengine.html

Angel Labs homepage
MYT demonstration at SJSU - youtube videos

MYT is a swing-piston engine that can be scaled to basically any size you want, from lawnmowers to semi trailers. The 14" prototype is appropriate for replacing a large diesel engine.

It was developed on a shoestring budget. At one point the prototype was running on diesel, but they switched it to run on compressed air for development and demonstration purposes.

It's basically a swing-piston engine. The inventor doesn't want to sell out, and has been looking for someone to loan him a couple million dollars ($4m) to build a factory. He did get enough to start development on a 6-inch version (appropriate for replacing a car engine) last year, but I think he ran out of money again...

"Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence." -John Adams

Nuclear power has one thing going for it:

• * High Energy Density

Nuclear power also has several strikes:

• * High maintenance - everything has to work all the time so that your plant doesn't explode and make hundreds of square miles uninhabitable
• * High initial cost
• * High shutdown costs
• * stuck with billion-dollar boiling water reactors and pressurized water reactors

Even if a superior reactor design comes along, there's an incredible financial incentive to stick with the technology that was first developed and deployed (see the Wired story on thorium).

The best argument in favor of nuclear power is that "it may have problems, but it's all we've got". Nuclear advocates rightly point out that, compared to coal, oil, natural gas, and even hydropower (complicated), perhaps nuclear isn't so bad. Coal is abundant but dirty, oil is expensive and dirty, natural gas is cleaner but still poisons the ocean with CO2, and hydropower has it's own challenges.

But the one "black swan" that never gets talked about is "disruptive technology" that changes the entire energy equation.

One example: I've mentioned Global Resource Corporation's Microwave here before. This device uses specific microwave frequencies to release gaseous and liquid hydrocarbons from solids, such as coal (diesel, propane, butane). The company had a prototype that worked on tires, but they fell apart before they could get commercial versions of their technology to market. Luckily archive.org has a copy of their website: http://waybackmachine.org/*/http://www.GlobalResourceCorp.com. I remember reading about a cool patent that used Magnetic Resonance to figure out what specific microwaves a given sample of "trash" would need to be broken down...

GRC's site talked about applying the technology to tar sands, to coal mining, breaking down hundreds of millions of used tires piled everywhere... How would the energy equation change if harvesting coal and tar sands didn't require massive amounts of energy?

Here's something else: according to an old story on money.cnn.com, the largest single use of electricity in southern California is pumping water. And very large amount of water is used to generate electricity.

So, with these twin issues... What if Raphial Morgado's MYT (Mighty) pump really is as good as he says it is? Suppose you could get 25% more water pumped for the same amount of electricity, or generate 25% more electricity with the same amount of steam?

Whereas Global Resource Corp's special microwaves haven't reached market because it was torpedo'd by mismanagement (or maybe there's a technical problem - I'm pretty certain that the science is sound), Morgado's pump is in limbo because he hasn't yet found anyone who'd lend him $4-million or $10-million to build a factory. He has plenty of offers to buy the technology outright, but he has the audacity to presume that he should be the one to profit from his invention.

Imagine if the demand for energy suddenly plunged by more than 25%. Oil is only going for $100/barell because demand roughly matches supply. If supply exceeds demand by a significant percentage, we'd be back to $1/gallon gas in a heartbeat.

These are just the two technologies that

http://www.angellabsllc.com/ Gates may be backing the wrong horse- power. :)

Here's my fuel log.

The 1992-1995 Civic VX has a special 5-wire oxygen sensor. When conditions are right, it goes into a 'lean burn' mode, where it operates sort of like a diesel.

Lean Burn is somewhat dirty, and the car emits more nitrous oxides than other Hondas. The 5spd Honda Insight had lean burn, whereas the CVT version did not. Honda developed a catalyst for the nitrous oxides, so the Civic hybrids (2001 or so?) are able to use lean-burn too.

Kinda sad that my 15 year old Honda w/ 171,000 miles gets fuel economy equivalent to today's best hybrids...

I'm hoping that the MYT engine lives up to its promise as a retrofit engine - I'll probably need a replacement powertrain in the next 50-100,000 miles. (Watch the videos on YouTube, include a January 2009 prototype demonstration [with compressed air] at SJSU. Even if it doesn't take off as an engine, the MYT design would still save megawatt-hours of energy as a air/liquid pump.)

"The idea of a completely spinning engine is very seductive, but the actual results of forty years of careful research has not delivered a spinning engine that's better than the 'tossing potatos'."

http://peswiki.com/index.php/Directory:StarRotor_C orporation

http://peswiki.com/index.php/Directory:Massive_Yet _Tiny_(MYT)_Engine
-Animation: http://www.angellabsllc.com/animation.html

Two highly innovative, extremely efficient rotary engines...

It's funny how your post and mine were 1 minute apart...

Now, think of this idea:

http://www.emhartcontest.com/ (full article published in NASA Tech Briefs magazine, dead tree edition)

First Prize winner. An equivalent 2.4 litre engine weighs 35 pounds. Vroom Vroom.

http://www.angellabsllc.com/

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BMO