Turbine power for your laptop!

Check this out!

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Army
Research

Laboratory
TechNews May, 2001 Army Research Laboratory
2800 Powder Mill Road Adelphi, Md., 28785-1197
Army exploring microturbines as
soldier power source


Gas turbine engines power the Army's Apache helicopters and M1A2 Abrams tanks. But someday, a
gas turbine engine might replace the batteries to power your portable radio or CD player: a microturbine. In the
future, the individual soldier's equipment, as well as commercially available items, could also be powered by
a gas turbine engine: a microturbine. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
working with ARL support through it's Army Research Office, is working to develop such an engine.
Microturbines represent an innovative approach to providing a power source that potentially has some five
to 10 times the energy density of batteries. The concept relies on two key ideas.
First, the energy obtained from a liquid hydrocarbon fuel burned in air is roughly 100 times the
energy of a similar weight of batteries.


Second, the same microfabrication technology developed to make computer chips can be used to
fabricate microturbines, conceivably at similar affordable costs.
Although there are many technical hurdles to building such devices the first 5 years of the microturbine
program conducted at MIT have demonstrated numerous successes, such as spinning turbines at speeds up to 1. 4
million RPM. If microturbines are able to reach projected
efficiencies of 10 percent, then a two-d pound container of fuel could provide more electrical energy than seven
batteries, which together weigh more than 15 pounds. The Army is interested in microturbines to power the
individual soldier's equipment. Contact Dave Davison, 301 394-2302
or e-mail ddavison@ arl. army. mil

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Fuel cells are cool, but a 1.4 million rpm turbine laptop! That's what I'm talking about

Cool idea if they can get it to be a practicle application!

The only problem I see with this is too many "grunts" catching themselves on fire with the exhaust.
Great idea but you need to do something with the heat I would imagine.