WDL has designed & developed a turbo-expander. This is used in a boosted IC engine to reduce the charge air temperature below ambient temperature. This in turn improves engine performance, fuel economy and emissions.

To be effective, a turbo-expander needs a high effciency turbine. WDL used 1D & 3D modeling tools to design & develop a cold-air turbine with an efficiency greater thatn 85 percent. The engine system & the turbine are modeled in 1D using the AMESim platform. In order to have a cost-effective product, the WDL turbo-expander is based on current high volume production turbocharger designs.

Turbo-expansion has applications in other industries, including food processing, HVAC, refrigeration & waste heat recovery. In all these industries the lack of availability of a high-efficiency cost-effective turbo-expander has held back market application. The WDL solution will enable air-cycle cooling applications & systems to be developed for these markets.