"A technology discovered by Benjamin Franklin is being revived to make more efficient electric motors”, he says the Wall Street Journal.
Some scientists and engineers, armed with techniques from the 1700s, are creating modern versions of Franklin's electrostatic motor, and are on the verge of commercialization.
Franklin's electrostatic motor uses alternating positive and negative charges — the same current that makes your socks stick together after they come out of the dryer — to turn a shaft, and doesn't use current flow like conventional electric motors.
Every few years, an aspiring Ph.D. student or engineer rediscovers this historic machine. But aside from applications in tiny pumps and actuators etched into microchips, where this technology has been used for decades, their work has not made it out of the lab.
Electrostatic motors have huge advantages over conventional motors. They are up to 80% more efficient than conventional engines. They don't use rare earth elements because they don't have permanent magnets and require just 5% more copper than a conventional motor.
“It harkens back to the early 1990s, when Sony began producing and selling the first rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, a breakthrough that is now ubiquitous…” the article reads.
“These engines could lead to more efficient air conditioning systems, factories, logistics hubs and data centers as they can also act as generators. They may even appear on tiny surveillance drones.”
The article notes that C-Motive Technologies, a 16-person startup in Wisconsin, is "already reaching out to companies, hoping to change their engines." So far, FedEx and Rockwell Automation are among those testing the new motors.”
The founders of C-Motive discovered that a number of technologies had matured enough that if combined, they could give electrostatic motors competitive with conventional ones. These actuation technologies include ultra-fast switching power electronics—like those in modern electric vehicles—that can switch motor elements between positive and negative charge states very quickly…
Persistent exploration of combinations of various readily available industrial organic fluids has resulted in a proprietary blend that can multiply electric field strength and insulate rotating engine parts from each other – all without adding excessive friction – reports CEO C-Motive Consultant Matt Maroon.