“Inside-out Wankel” rotary engine delivers 5X the power of a diesel

LiquidPiston says its new XTS-210 solves the efficiency, lubrication and fuel type issues of Wankel rotary engines

Targeted at military, commercial and aerospace applications, the XTS-210 is about the size of a basketball, weighs in at 19 kg (42 lb), and displaces 210 cc. It’ll run on multiple fuels, including diesel and kerosene/jet fuel. The company is shooting for about 20 kW (26.8 hp) and 29.4 Nm (21.7 lb-ft) of torque, both at 6,500 rpm.

These numbers compare favorably against the 18.8 kW (25.2 hp) and 63 Nm (46 b-ft) peak outputs of the Kohler KDW1003 E536A, says LiquidPiston, a diesel roughly five times the physical size of the XTS-210, and over four times the weight. And the XTS design uses just two primary moving parts: a rotor and a shaft. You can see a breakdown of an older version in the video below.

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So how do they work? “If you recall the Wankel,” LiquidPiston co-founder and CEO Alec Shkolnik explained to us in a 2020 interview, “they have a triangular rotor inside a peanut-shaped housing. We have the opposite, a peanut-shaped rotor in a tri-lobed housing. So take everything you know about the Wankel and turn it literally inside out.

Read more: New Atlas