Technology
Bright Idea
By Aaron Alan Tilley September 9, 2011
This article originally appeared in the October 2011 issue of Seattle magazine.
Finding better batteries for electric cars has been the holy grail in the alternative energy industry for a while, yet they remain impractical given their limited range and forbidding price tags. Seattle-based Clarian Labs is going about the quest in a different way: Instead of trying to improve on storage technology, it is making what is essentially a fuel-powered battery that could power anything from electric cars to small electronic devices.
Originally developed as a power source for the Department of Defenses Humanoid Robot Program, Clarians technology is a rotary-piston motorconsisting of only two moving partsthat uses an electromagnetic pull to transform hydrocarbons into electricity. The compact and self-contained nature of the engine makes the technology battery-likeit can be shrunk to fit in the palm of one’s hand and requires no outside power generation. The company puts it this way: Think of the rotary generator as a powerful self-contained hybrid electromechanical battery.
The size adaptability allows the motor to be used in things as large as passenger vehiclesas, say a range extender in an electric caror as small as a smartphone.
The idea may seem strange: Why pursue energy projects based on unsustainable fuels? The reality is that current technology is inadequate for complete reliance on batteries to power large machines such as automobiles.
Hydrocarbon-based biofuels have more than 20 to 30 times greater energy densityyou get more energy from every fuel unit you put inthan traditional lithium batteries. Thus, Clarian is relying on the energy richness of hydrocarbonsgasoline, kerosene, propane, etc.in an energy-efficient and scalable rotary motor to generate electricity.
The five-person incubator company is led by Chad Maglaque, who has more than 20 years of product management experience with Microsoft and other Fortune 500 companies.
In 2010, Clarian Power, owned by the same group as Clarian Labs, won General Electrics Consumer Innovation Award in the Ecomagination Challenge with its SmartBox Solar Module, a plug-in solar panel for homeowners. Like Clarians rotary motor, the solar module remains in development and is not yet ready for sale.
A cutaway view of a generator prototype