A novel magnetic scroll expander as a drive for electricity generation

Energy efficiency and dynamic performance are key factors to drives, which, however, will be deteriorated by air leakage between the air pockets and friction distributions to the pneumatic drives. This paper presents a novel magnetic scroll expander, aiming at improving the typical scroll expander performance and energy efficiency especially when the expander operates at low compressed air pressures. The mathematical model of the proposed magnetic scroll expander is developed. ANSYS Maxwell software is employed to analyse the generalised magnetic field strength and magnetic forces/torque. The development of a prototype of magnetic scroll expander is described. From the initial study, it shows that the proposed magnetic scroll expander has potential in improving scroll expander´s energy conversion efficiency.