The New Golden Age of Steam – an interview with Julian Dunne

University of Sussex Engineer Professor Julian Dunne will be talking about The New Golden Age of the Steam Engine at the University of Brighton on 8 September as part of the British Science Festival 2017.

‘We are trying to reverse a hundred years of failure to hail in a new golden age of steam’

What first sparked your interest in science?

Growing up with the Apollo space programme, which culminated in the first manned moon landing, had an enormous influence on my interest in physics, mathematics, engineering, and computing.

What’s it like to have a ‘eureka’ moment?

Totally exhilarating. Adequate compensation for all the hundreds of prior failures. I had a ‘eureka’ moment talking to someone during a conference walk in the Black Forest in Germany. This occurred four years after being totally baffled by a mathematical problem.

What will the audience learn at your event?

Why it is difficult to decarbonise road transport.

What’s important about your area of research?

We are trying to reverse a hundred years of failure to hail in a new golden age of steam. We are not talking about bringing back steam engines, rather the prospect of cooling car engines with steam, or to be precise, using evaporation. This offers improved efficiency, reduced Co2 emissions, and improved fuel economy and is particularly important for very small, compact (downsized) engines in hybrid electric vehicles.

Which scientific discovery or invention has made the greatest difference to your life?

I have invented something I called the ‘Amocatic’ generator designed to produce electrical power in the range 1kW-150kW. It does this potentially with high efficiency, excellent power-weight ratio, greater compactness and low noise and vibration characteristics, making it suitable as a range extender for electric vehicles, or as a generator in the domestic combined heat and power market.

Existing low power generators suffer from low efficiencies, high levels of noise and vibration and, when not in use, cannot be used to store kinetic energy. This patented design is an improvement on what is currently in the market place because it incorporates all the thermal efficiency, low friction, and low noise and vibration benefits of a free piston engine but overcomes the associated control and stability issues.

My Amocatic generator design was awarded a certificate for being in the top 100 (global) entries in the Tech Briefs Media Group 2016 Create The Future Design Contest.

Which scientific mystery would you most like solved?

The origin of the Universe. Because it would answer so many questions for so many people.

Which scientists (alive, dead or fictional) would you invite to a summer picnic?

Albert Einstein.

Julian Dunne will talk about The New Golden Age of the Steam Engine for the British Science Festival.