Libertine Holdings PLC (LSE AIM: LIB), a developer of Linear Generator technology, has entered into a Strategic Partnership Agreement with VIELETECH Inc (“Vieletech”), a provider of research engine controllers, to commercialise Libertine’s OpenFPE research engine systems for advanced combustion development.
The purpose of the Strategic Partnership Agreement is to enable both companies to collaborate on business development, customer-oriented specifications development, technical development and commercial contractual development with a view to establishing OpenFPE research engine sales in the US and globally. The agreement sets out the understanding, intentions and scope of activities of Libertine and Vieletech in connection with this purpose. The nature of the Strategic Partnership Agreement is largely non-binding and any revenue generating activities would be subject to further agreement in the form of a binding Contractual Framework Agreement and Statements of Work.
Libertine’s OpenFPE proposition is a turn-key free piston research engine solution for advanced combustion development and renewable fuels research programmes, combining a single cylinder Linear Generator module with the necessary power electronics, motion controls and auxiliary systems. OpenFPE has been designed to enable combustion system components to be modified or swapped, and to improve research and development productivity with tools for system modelling, data acquisition and analytics.
Vieletech, Inc. (www.vieletech.com) builds and supports research engine controllers for government, academic and industrial applications around the world. Vieletech was formed by the team behind Drivven Inc. and National Instruments Powertrain Controls, and to date well over 2000 technical publications have been created using Vieletech and Drivven controllers.
Libertine and Vieletech have entered into the Strategic Partnership Agreement to deliver prospective commercial sales of the OpenFPE research engine system to leading research organisations in the US and globally.
The OpenFPE system builds on the first phase of combustion testing of Libertine’s intelliGEN performance validation prototype in 2023 and makes use of intelliGEN enhancements that are now complete, having been validated in motored testing. Subsequent generation OpenFPE systems are expected to incorporate Vieletech’s MICE/MICESTRO embedded controller hardware and POSLINK communications protocol, which may also be incorporated into next-generation Linear Power System products using Libertine’s intelliGEN or HEXAGEN platform technology.
Sam Cockerill, Chief Executive Officer of Libertine, said: “OpenFPE changes the game for combustion researchers. It is the first ever research engine that offers real-time compression ratio control, multi-fuel capability and a customer-configurable combustion system. It provides research organisations a valuable shortcut to advanced combustion calibration using free piston technology, making use of the intelliGEN platform that has been years in the making.
“Matt and his team at Vieletech have supported the development of controllers for Libertine’s intelliGEN and HEXAGEN platforms since 2017. OpenFPE packages the intelliGEN platform in a new format that has been designed specifically for research organisations. Vieletech works with some of the world’s leading research organisations and has deep expertise and demonstrated capability when it comes to specifying, integrating and supporting systems for these customers.
“Now that we have completed intelliGEN platform performance enhancements we are looking to put this technology to work in research labs around the world. This agreement is a natural progression of our relationship with Vieletech and leverages the strengths of both companies to grow our OpenFPE sales.”
Dr. Matthew Viele, CTO of Vieletech said: “Vieletech’s core architecture is built around a large Field Programmable Gate Array doing low level tasks and a real-time CPU doing complex math. We leverage the National Instruments LabVIEW™ language for its ease of use and reliability which allows us to support all sorts of special engines and engine accessories that could not have been practically tested without our controllers, drivers, and supporting systems.
“Of all the engines we have run, the most promising is the free piston linear generator. We had done some work with free-piston engines before 2017 when we started working with Libertine, but mostly at a device driver and hardware level. When Sam approached us about doing deeper support of the engine effort we jumped at the opportunity.
“It has been a pleasure working with Libertine in the background supporting their work with software and control system hardware. We look forward to expanding our partnership by directly supporting full research engine deployments.”