Automotive X-Prize Profile: Team Adiabatic

Submitted by Ross Mon 02/02/2009

Over the next few months and at a casual, intermittent pace, I’m going to use this blog to profile official contenders in the Progressive Automotive X-Prize. I’ll provide links so interested readers can explore them further, and I encourage you to post your opinions of each contender, their technologies, and how you think they’ll do in this extraordinary competition.

Today’s is the first, and I'm starting with Team Adiabatic out of New York.

Team Adiabatic

Vehicle name: 426 Wedge

Fuel(s): Conventional gasoline

Class*: Mainstream

*The Mainstream class requires “Specifications derived from typical existing small, 5-passenger economy mixed-use vehicles.”

Key Technology

The Lydell Third Stroke Engine. The standard internal combustion engine is terribly inefficient; only about one quarter of the energy unleashed by combustion actually propells the vehicle. The rest is expelled as heat via either the radiator or the exhaust. Team Adiabatic’s Third Stroke Engine uses proprietary technology to increase that engine efficiency by 100%.

Furthermore, the company claims that their engine “can be designed to use any of the currently available fuels, plus emerging fuel sources such as hydrogen gas and ethanol gasoline blends.”

Goal: The team's ultimate goal is to license the technology to the automotive industry, where “there is known benefits and market potential.”

Leader: Martin G. Lydell

Financial backing: Lydell Industries LLC