Posted on 04. Apr, 2008 by Ryan in 2000-2009, Innovations

Photo Credit: Saab-Scania AB

In 1974, Saab-Scania Sweden’s Saab Car Division began developing what is known as the “Saab Nine Cylinder Axial Steam Engine” also known as project ULF.

This 250-hp nine cylinder steam engine was quite small, but it packed a punch while requiring a boiler and a large condenser with a buffer tank. The best part about this engine was that it required minimal fossil fuels and included miniscule carbon emissions.

At the time, Saab believed that they had overcome the most difficult obstacles with this engine that included everything from freezing, lubrication, cooling and starting time.

The steam generator itself operated at a working pressure of 100 bar at a temp of 662 degrees fahrenheit. This generator consists of 120 parallel tubes, spirally wound and brazed together. The tube’s internal diameter is only one mm.

The main expander included nine cylinders arranged axially in a ring around the verticle shaft, with a swashplate drive to the fina-drive unit and differential integrated with the crankcase. It is a uni-flow type with a variable cut-off control. This unit was geared to run at 3000 rpm at 90 miles per hour. The exhaust temperature from this engine was lower than one would expect at 180 degrees to a maximum of 482 degrees fahrenheit.

There was a liquid fuel burner that warmed up the water boiler that poured into the main expander engine. so there was a slight use of fossil fuels.

This quiet engine was designed and operated to drive the front wheels directly just like a conventional engine of its time and many to this very day.

It is notable that at the time, the Environmental Protection Agency in the United States awarded Saab-Scania AB for this successful steam engine development at the same time they were sending funds directly into stateside research steam-baed projects that never went as far as this project did.

According to a number of the research articles in this source, Saab-Scania AB’s Saab Car Division not only planned to continue this project well into the 1980’s, but they also planned to apply this nearly completed project to all of their production cars in the future.

So here is the question, what happened to this innovative breakthrough from Saab? It would appear that a project like this that was apparently shelved, should be reinstated, updated and included in Saab’s research and development today for alternative energy sources such as their ongoing BioPower and Hybrid programs. It would seem logical that the idea of using water to create steam is not a new idea and that it would be probably a less expensive and simpler solution than all of the existing alternatives being developed today.

Source: The Printed Word For ’74 – Saab-Scania of America, Inc.