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Research On the Cutting Edge Technion Internal Combustion Engines Lab

“Our engine will make
hydrogen out of fuel
right inside the car”

Assoc. Prof. Leonid Tartakovsky and his team
are developing highly energy-efficient and
ecologically safe internal combustion engines

What: “Developing efficient and battery causes increased friction, Who: Assoc. Prof. Tartakovsky
sustainable energy conversion so the amount of particulate had completed his Ph.D.
methods is critical to ensuring matter it generates is actually in mechanical engineering
humanity’s future – no less so higher.” back in Moscow, before he
than coming up with new drugs The aluminum, copper and left the USSR for Israel and
and medical treatments,” declares graphite used in these batteries made aliyah as part of the
Assoc. Prof. Leonid Tartakovsky, is just as big a concern, he warns. big 1991 immigration wave.
who heads the Technion’s Internal “Most of these materials come “In Moscow, I was head of an
Combustion Engines Lab (TICEL). from mines, and the mining engine research lab,” he tells
In recent years, TICEL has been activity produces a lot of waste us. “I wanted to stay in the
tackling a number of engineering that pollutes the soil and water same line of work in Israel,
and scientific challenges. On the – both seawater and freshwater. so I got into the Technion,
one hand, there is increasing In other words, we think we’re and in 2013 I got my own lab.
demand for maximizing energy solving one ecological problem, Funny thing is, it took me two
efficiency when using existing but by doing so, we’re actually decades to reach the same
energy sources in internal creating another one that’s just as position I held in the Soviet
combustion engines, with ground bad.” Union,” he laughs.
and aerial vehicle engines being Assoc. Prof. Tartakovsky is “In recent years, I have been
the top priority. On the other currently developing a technology researching new energy
hand, we must minimize the that combines a combustion conversion processes with two
pollution these engines generate. engine cycle with a chemical objectives in mind: very high
One would expect the rapid rise of reaction that utilizes the heat energy conversion efficiency
electric cars to solve both of these from emission gasses, creating and near-zero pollutant
issues, but according to Assoc. a thermochemical cycle that emissions. Both goals take
Prof. Tartakovsky, that is hardly the produces hydrogen. “According into account the use of
case. Today, he explains, “much to our calculations, we can reach renewable fuels, to meet future
of the pollution from cars is from energy conversion efficiency requirements.”
particles generated by the friction similar to that of an electric car,
between the tires and the road. In with no ecological problems
an electric car, the weight of the whatsoever.”

20 | MEgazine | Faculty of Mechanical Engineering