Emergency Engine

September 20, 2006

After a hurricane, communities try to better prepare for the next one. Now University of Florida engineers have developed the perfect tool for what happens after a storm.

This portable power plant generates power, freshwater and enough refrigeration to make ice. UF engineer William Lear says emergency managers could drop-in the system before a storm hits or integrate it into a community’s everyday power grid.

Lear: “It gives you at least a section of the population that has power, has refrigeration, it has ice, and therefore you don’t have the entire infrastructure down in a very widespread area like you had in New Orleans that requires everything to be brought in externally. Instead, neighbors can come over and take advantage of areas of a community that still do have services like that.”

Engineers have found a method to take waste heat from the engine to provide the cooling for refrigeration. Freshwater results as a by-product of condensation.

Lear: “I would say there is plenty of effort being made currently at supplying services in emergencies, power being one of them. I think the uniqueness is that the system is tightly integrated so that it effectively provides all the services, basically, that you need from a utility standpoint in an emergency.”

Tests show the engine is very efficient, but it could still take a few years before communities can use it.

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