Tour in the Laboratory of Skoltech Center for Energy Systems. Left to right: Mr. Yozo Okuyama, Mr. Masanori Nakamura, Dr. Hiroyuki Ichikawa, Mr. Dmitry Smirnov, Mr. Andrey Vakhlyaev, Mr. Vladimir Dvorcov, Mme. Liudmila Liman
On November 11, 2016, Skoltech Center for Energy Systems hosted the meeting between Nissan Research Center – with representatives from Japan and Russia – and Thermal Motors LLC (TM) – a startup cofounded by a Skoltech graduate Dmitry Smirnov.
The sides have discussed recent developments and perspectives for the implementation of external heating thermal motors in automobile industry to reduce carbon emissions.
After the meeting the participants had a tour in the laboratory of the Skoltech Center for Energy Systems, where the installation of an experimental unit with a TM thermal motor is planned for the next year.
Thermal Motors LLC is a company founded in 2014 and is based in Moscow and St. Petersburg. TM has gathered one of the strongest engineering teams in Russia with expertise to develop and license an emerging technology of external heating thermal motors. The novel energy solution allows the sustainable use of primary energy sources. The history of collaboration between Skoltech and TM has begun in 2014 from the Memorandum of Understanding in the field of power machine building. Today, the organizations are planning the joint project to develop an experimental test unit with a TM thermal motor which will be used by the Skoltech Center for Energy Systems for novel research and development.