Smooth Generator: THE MINI TURBINE PACKING A BIG PUNCH

Tent, sleeping bag, torches, water, first-aid kit, toilet paper, camping chair, mosquito repellent, stove, portable speakers and perhaps a pack of UNO cards.

These are among common items you’d expect to be packed for a successful caravanning or camping trip.

But could jet-engine inspired portable generators be added to the off-road holiday essentials?

Two Adelaide entrepreneurs and mechanical and aerospace engineers hope so as they aim to revolutionise mobile power supply at home, on holidays and in the battlefield in a world-first breakthrough technology.

James Kim and Alexander Wright of ecoJet Engineering are a small team of specialists from Lot Fourteen focused on innovating lightweight portable and fuel-flexible advanced microturbine solutions to modern energy problems.

Miniaturised jet engine

In its simplest form, the team’s technology is based on miniaturised jet engine technology, reconfigured and redesigned from the ground up to produce energy, instead of thrust, explains Wright, the company’s director of management and operations.

Founded in 2016, ecoJet’s vision to revolutionise energy generation was inspired when, as final year engineering students at the University of Adelaide, the team created a world-leading matchbox-sized jet engine that was 3D printed in titanium and capable of producing up to 1kW of power. Yes, that’s right – a jet engine that fits in the palm of the hand.

Their current development focus is a bespoke prototype 3kW mechanical microturbine engine paired with a high-speed electrical generator and inverter to create an extremely compact and efficient holistic energy system that runs at speeds of well over 100,000RPM (which is very fast). This is all complemented with world leading bespoke power electronics developed by their partnering company in Victoria.

James and Alex say their so-called Micro Turbine Inverter Genset (MTIG), made possible with funding from the Australian Defence Force (ADF) and the Government of South Australia, could replace heavy, noisy and polluting diesel generators with a highly transportable and scalable power plant to meet power needs on the battlefield.

The MTIG Kim says, is a “fraction of the size and weight” of existing technology, has low-noise output, and critically can run on any fuel source to produce “reliable electricity at the source where and when it’s needed”.

“Warfighting and defence operations are increasingly energy dependent and energy hungry,” he explains. “Sensors, drones, C4 systems, electric vehicles, as well as many weapons systems and platforms rely on power availability for their effectiveness.

“ecoJet Engineering enables greater energy resilience, adaptability, and agility through soldier-manoeuvrable microturbine generators.

“Our technology enables significant advantages in size, weight, power, and fuel-flexibility whilst maintaining competitive, and in some cases leading, overall efficiency and noise control.”

Lightweight, scalable power supply

A dispatchable 3kW MTIG system would produce enough power to meet the energy demands of an average Australian household and could complement charging of an electric vehicle. In the battlefield it would be suitable for powering a small deployable command post and/or critical field equipment particularly in hard-to-reach contested environments, or offering on-board power for small mobile platforms, James says.

MTIGs can be linked together to create a deployable scalable pico-grid to meet more dynamic energy needs of the modern battlefield.

“Our system is designed such that you can have multiple units stacked together so you can easily scale anywhere from 3kW up to 45kW of power rapidly on demand,” Kim, the company’s director of engineering and products, says.

The fuel flexibility of the microturbine could be a particular advantage during disaster relief efforts when fuel may be in short supply or fuel type cannot be guaranteed in remote locations.

“It’s designed to be as flexible and adaptable as possible,” Kim adds.

While ecoJet is not the first developer of micro-turbine generator technology, Wright says most comparable systems are designed to be fixed location and are heavy or very fuel thirsty.

“In recent years some lighter systems have been developed for smaller-scale applications, however even these systems remain in the hundreds of kilograms,” he says.

The current 3kW microturbine generator demonstrator prototype weighs about 30kg and the MTIG system, which includes additional Li-ion batteries for uninterrupted power supply, weighs about 70kgs  – compared to 100-200kg for a comparable military diesel generator without any battery storage capability.

Supporting sovereign capability

ecoJet expects these weights to significantly reduce as it refines its size and weight through further development.

“A big focus for us is that we can build and sustain this locally and build it into the ADF’s sovereign capability,” Kim says.

Depending on trials and funding, they hope to have initial product offerings within the next couple of years.

Which brings us back to camping. While the immediate focus is on applications in defence, Alex and James see widespread commercial uses for their portable turbines, including EV charging and auxiliary power units for camping trailers.

“The beauty is that our systems are much quieter than other generators, have far fewer moving parts thereby requiring significantly less maintenance, and can even rapidly transition to cleaner fuels such as hydrogen as they are made available – the applications are endless,” he says.

The microturbine development has also had the support of OptoFab, based at the University of Adelaide’s City East campus, who provide ecoJet with titanium metal 3D printing and precision ultrasonic milling machining capabilities.

Read more stories like this on Issue_03 of Lot Fourteen’s Boundless Magazine.