Martin Lydell works on the car for which he is developing an energy-efficient engine.
FREWSBURG - The energy-efficient car engine being developed by Martin Lydell and his Team Adiabatic may be up for a $5 million XPRIZE, but the real reason he is building it is to help Mother Earth.
''The older you get, the more you realize the whole earth has to be in balance,'' he said, adding one can't take more from the earth than they give back. According to its Web site, the purpose of the X PRIZE foundation is to bring about radical breakthroughs for the benefit of humanity.
''We foster innovative, high-profile competitions that motivate individuals across all boundaries to solve grand challenges, '' states the site.
''A person has a responsibility to give back,'' said Lydell, adding people are not entitled to everything.
Add his responsibility philosophy and enjoyment of inventing things, and you get the Pulse Power engine.
''It's a piece I can help with,'' he said.
''We are a petroleum-hungry country,'' states Lydell Industry's Web site. It adds that in 2005, automobiles used 9 million barrels of gas daily.
Six volunteer members of Team Adiatic, which is a physics term meaning no lost heat, make up Lydell's group, which is seeking the $5 million prize, to be awarded in July 2010 to 45 contestants competing for the prize from around the world.
The Lydell Pulse Power engine has cost Lydell about $100,000 and 6,000 hours since 1984 when he retired from WCA Hospital to pursue the invention. The engine internally transfers thermal energy that is usually lost to a car's radiator into engine power output.
''Autos are very wasteful,'' Lydell said. He said only about 25 percent of gas put in a tank goes to propelling a car, with the rest wasted. Heand his team have worked to capture the heat lost from the radiator to power the engine. It gets 77 miles per gallon in the engine he calls the Pulse Power.
A preliminary contest, in June 2010 is for those inventors whose cars can get 67 miles per gallon. Those successful can put up another $5,000 to makes it to the final contest that will include similar routes on like terrain in different places.
His hope is that someone will take his idea and get it to the masses, reducing his country's dependency on oil, decreasing pollution, and reducing global warming. Lydell said even if he places in the top of the contest but does not get first place, his engine will get noticed, just in time.
''It's starting to show cracks around the edges,'' Lydell said about the earth.
The paradime of a high-efficiency vehicle is what drew Nels Anderson to be part of Lydell's team. He said no one can come up with such a vehicle ... except someone right here in Chautauqua County's backyard.
''It's fun to be part of,'' the volunteer said.
''If I had a calling, this is it,'' said Lydell.
Source: http://post-journal.com/page/content.detail/id/527426.html?nav=5018
