will not be simple or straightforward. In the near future, all cars and trucks will no doubt be powered by fuel-cells that use hydrogen as fuel because there is no other viable alternative. So, the important question is how to move from heavy reliance on a high-polluting and inefficient internal-combustion, reciprocating-piston engine to fuel-cells. Any method to move us closer to a worldwide hydrogen-based economy must include a suitable replacement for the gasoline engine that is not only clean and efficient, but one which also has comparable driving-performance characteristics. An engine satisfying those requirements would clearly be the “leverage point” in the “trimtab” tradition needed for a comprehensive method to introduce the world to renewable hydrogen. A Stirling engine is a possible candidate needed for the transition, but such an engine has low power for its size and weight. There is an insufficient amount of time for heat to be transferred to the working gas in the engine through a wall during one cycle of operation, and poor heat transfer results in low efficiency and low power-density. A novel and effective solution to the problem is to store working gas in a heating chamber over a time period equal to several engine operating cycles (instead of just one) to allow the gas to heat properly. Thus, a new heating apparatus with multiple independent chambers was designed to allow any two-stroke or four-stroke internal-combustion, reciprocating-piston engine to be converted to a clean-burning, efficient, and powerful external-combustion engine that can burn any fuel, including hydrogen. This is certainly the engine that can bridge the gap to a "hydrogen economy" since it provides a solution to the energy-carrier problem and to the sustainable energy-availability problem as well!

Describe the critical need your solution addresses.

Until now, there was no existing heat engine available for use in an automobile that was low-polluting, efficient, and powerful. All available engines suffer from one aspect or another. Hot-air engines particularly have low power-density because there is never enough time to heat the working gas with an external heat source. The heat-transfer rate through a physical wall or barrier is always too slow. There just didn't seem to be a solution to the strict physical limitation. However, a single-piston, reciprocating-piston engine was converted as a test device and a single steel tube with a control valve was added to the head-assembly. During the test, the crankshaft was manually rotated to move the piston to the top of the cylinder so that air was forced into the tube by the piston. The valve was then closed to trap the compressed air inside the tube. A flame was applied to the tube's end for a short while and the valve was opened quickly causing the piston to move down the cylinder with great force as the very high-pressure air rushed from the heated tube! A simple solution to the problem of inadequate heating of the working gas was found: the air merely needed to be trapped inside the tube for a longer period of time so it could heat properly! As air is stored and heated in one tube for several engine cycles, another tube is discharged to drive the engine...very simple indeed! So, all that is needed in a complete two-stroke engine is a heating apparatus with many steel tubes where one tube receives air during the compression-stroke, and air from another tube is released during the power-stroke. Any diesel or gasoline internal-combustion, reciprocating-piston engine can now be easily converted to an external-combustion engine that burns any fuel! The result is an engine that burns anything combustible, including hydrogen, in a precisely-controlled external combustion process and which is efficient, simple, low-polluting, powerful for its size and weight, and one that can be mass-produced with minimal production-equipment retooling. This "trimtab transition engine" will ultimately provide a method and means for a quick and easy transition to a worldwide hydrogen-economy!

Explain your initiative in more depth and its stage of development.

The notion of moving to a hydrogen-based economy has its critics, especially when using hydrogen as fuel in non-mobile applications. A process of hydrogen production, transport, storage, and electric-generation results in an efficiency of 25% even with the best fuel-cells. It hardly seems worth the bother since it would simply be better to use power from the electric-grid. However, the proposed engine is more efficient at converting energy from any heat source (solar, coal, methane, nuclear) than any method now supplying power to the grid. So every future home should have one instead of a fuel-cell! As far as transportation, hydrogen as an "energy-carrier" is still the best solution. There is simply no other viable energy-storage medium that has the high energy-density of hydrogen. Now, considering this "trimtab" engine can use any combustible fuel, what else is as clean-burning as hydrogen? Nothing! So, it again comes down to the need for a zero-polluting, highly-efficient, and extremely-powerful engine that can give driving performance comparable to what everyone is used to. This "transition" engine meets all those requirements.

How does your strategy and approach respond creatively and comprehensively to key issues?

I have several energy-related inventions including a patented internal-combustion engine with a sidewall combustion chamber (US Patent 7,387,093, Hacsi) that burns hydrogen fuel cleanly and efficiently. I also have several more applications that are being prosecuted at this time. My extensive experience as an inside-machinist allows me to manufacture parts of a prototype engine as they are needed. My education includes a BS in Business Administration with a minor in Applied Mathematics and I also have an AAS degree in computer science (both degrees from CSU-Pueblo). I normally build hot-air engines at a local college machine shop (I'm currently enrolled as a student at PCC-Pueblo). Last year, I was selected as one of twenty-five national semifinalists in the Modern Marvels/History Channel competition (out of over 4000 entries!) where I submitted an entry for a DC-AC Soft-Switching Inverter for use in a hybrid-electric or all-electric vehicle. I have recently teamed with an engineering professor at CSU-Pueblo in applying for NSF funding for a patent-pending nanoparticle separation and sorting technique that relies on my newly-defined physical effect called "thermodielectrophoresis" that can surprisingly be used in the proposed engine for employing nanotubes to increase heat-transfer rates and further improve the conversion efficiency. I am certain I have discovered a solution to global-warming and to our being held hostage at the pump by hostile oil-producing nations!