Second and Most Important Patent Granted but...

[RodRico]

I was just informed my second patent which captures all the lessons learned and improvements since the first patent was finally granted after a year of uncertainty. I've posted an animation and brief description of the engine on YouTube at

https://youtu.be/x-w7KM_LuvM

. The patent office suspended examination because my patent attorney forgot to pay filing fees. It was unclear for many months whether the patent could be resuscitated, and my morale and motivation to work on the prototype was destroyed as a result. Add in the continued assault on internal combustion by those with misplaced faith in electric as the only solution, and I'm really struggling to reengage. The excitement is gone and I'm not sure it will return.

 

[TugboatEng]

Just make sure it can run on ammonia.

 

[RodRico]

Just make sure it can run on ammonia.

Though I'd heard of it, I'd not looked into ammonia in my application until you mentioned it. I found this summary in a published paper

.

The comment "ammonia CI engines suffer of high unburned NH3 and NOx emissions" and "aftertreatment systems are mandatory for adaption of this technology" worry me. I adopted Low Temperature Combustion (LTC, in which peak temperatures are held below 2150K to reduce production of NOx products) precisely to eliminate the need for a costly NOx adsorber, and it appears ammonia would only make that problem worse. I'd be more than happy to simply have the prototype up and running on any fuel. Frankly, I'm not sure have the endurance and motivation to see my initial effort through to completion much less worry about new fuels. Maybe I'm just having a low moment. Maybe my mojo will return.