DARPA Awards New Funds for LiquidPiston Small Engine Combustion Project; Nikolay Shkolnik Comments

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has invested $991,557 in new funds for LiquidPiston’s effort to further the development of a rotary internal combustion system for small engines.

LiquidPiston said Thursday the project’s goal is to reduce fuel usage by half and increase power density by three times through a demonstration of a pathway towards a rotary jet propellant 8 engine, a kerosene-based jet fuel.

“Today’s diesel/JP-8 engines and generators are extremely heavy,” said Nikolay Shkolnik, LiquidPiston’s founder and chief technology officer and co-principal investigator of the project.

“LiquidPiston’s engine technology may enable a JP-8 generator of similar output weighing less than 30 pounds that could fit in a backpack,” added Shkolnik.

LiquidPiston recently confirmed the principles and compression ignition of diesel and JP-8 fuels using early prototypes.