A New Type of Lightweight, Efficient Compressor

Air conditioning and refrigeration consume a large portion of the world’s electrical power. The Chinese people have recently “discovered” air conditioners, and the demand for air conditioners has far outstripped the supply. As manufacturers gear up for larger production, power companies in China have not been able to keep up with power demand for all the new air conditioners. Areas of the U.S. have recently experienced brownouts during hot summer days as air conditioning has overloaded the power grids.

Refrigeration and air conditioner manufacturers have expended considerable research in recent years to develop more efficient units. Most of the power requirements for a refrigerator or air conditioner is used to drive the compressor that compresses the refrigeration gases.

We have received a patent on a revolutionary new compressor design called MECH that substitutes rolling friction for sliding friction. MECH stands for Motor, Expander, Compressor, and Hydraulics, since the same basic concept can be adapted to be an internal combustion engine, a gas expander, a compressor, or a hydraulic pump or hydraulic motor. Besides having less friction, the MECH compressor’s novel geometry provides three times the displacement of a piston compressor of the same physical size. That means that for the same capacity, the MECH compressor can be one-third the size.

We have constructed a MECH expander (sometimes called an air motor). See Figure 2. It is similar to a compressor. The MECH expander was tested in our laboratory and compared to a piston expander of the same displacement. The piston expander required 13 psi of air pressure to keep it running. A scroll expander required 8.5 psi to keep it running. The MECH expander required only 1 psi to keep it running. This demonstrates the low internal friction of MECH.

Science and technology do not, and must not rest on its accomplishments. In the ever-pressing need for conservation and wise use of resources, it is critical that pioneering efforts emerge to generate new solutions to the challenges we face.