http://4wheelsnews.com/images/2009/april/gates/plasma/bill-gates-plasma-injector.jpg" alt="Bill Gates Plasma Injector" />Bill Gates of Microsoft, one of the ten inventors on a new Searete LLC, has filed a patent for a new kind of powerplant that merges the characteristics of the traditional internal combustion engine and power generators.
The patent application, which is numbered 20090091138, details various designs which do not use the standard generator design that comes with an independent power source powering a separate electromagnetic generator. In a regular generator, a rotating permanent magnet is powered externally and moves within a tightly wound pack of wires, which creates a magnetic field which in turn creates electrical current. The patent shows tow different kinds of power units which employs the regular oscillation of a piston powerplant as the permanent magnet to create the needed electrical current in the windings fitted around the cylinder or the connecting shaft.
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"The engine may further include a reaction trigger (e.g., an electrical igniter such as a spark plug, a thermal igniter, a chemical igniter, a catalyst, a hypergolic injector, particle beam igniter, or a plasma injector) configured to initiate a chemical reaction in a reactant disposed between the first and second pistons. The reaction trigger may be disposed on a wall of the first cylinder, on the first piston, or elsewhere.
The reaction trigger may draw power from the first converter, may be electrically coupled to the first converter, or may draw power from an energy management system coupled to the first converter. The first port may include a valve, which may be configured to open and close via a camshaft, which may in turn be configured to be rotated by an electromagnetic actuator such as a stepper motor, or the valve may be mechanically actuated. "
[via
jalopnik]
