Solutions
Designed for System Constraints, Not Legacy Assumptions
Many low-carbon power solutions adapt legacy engine or turbine architectures to new fuels. While these approaches can reduce emissions, they often inherit limitations that were never designed for highly constrained, renewable-led power systems.
At Isochor, we start from first principles—reconsidering how fuel is converted into useful power when flexibility, rapid response, and local operability are critical.
Our rotary, pressure-based conversion architecture is designed to operate dynamically under intermittent and congestion-driven conditions. This enables compact, modular systems that can absorb surplus renewable energy and support local system needs at constrained points in the network.
Rather than retrofitting existing designs, Isochor’s approach focuses on purpose-built conversion concepts intended to contribute to curtailment reduction, system learning, and resilient operation in power systems with high renewable penetration.
IsochorEngine™ Platform
A Pressure-Based Conversion Architecture for Flexible Power Systems
The IsochorEngine™ platform is Isochor’s core pressure-based energy conversion architecture. It has been developed to explore alternative approaches to converting fuel into useful mechanical and electrical power under conditions where flexibility, dynamic operation, and system constraints matter.
The platform is built around two key architectural principles:
Pressure-Based Combustion in a Sealed Volume
Unlike conventional constant-pressure or piston-based systems, the IsochorEngine™ architecture maintains a sealed combustion volume during ignition. This enables near-constant-volume combustion and pressure recovery, forming the thermodynamic basis for pressure-based energy conversion.
Pulse-to-Rotary Mechanical Conversion
A novel kinematic arrangement converts discrete pressure pulses into continuous rotary motion. This approach enables smooth torque delivery and compact mechanical layouts while accommodating rapid start–stop operation and intermittent duty cycles.
Together, these principles define a modular, fuel-flexible platform intended to support exploration of new operating modes—particularly in applications involving intermittent surplus energy, constrained grid export, and local power system interaction.
The IsochorEngine™ platform provides a technical foundation for pilot-scale deployment and system-level learning, informing how pressure-based conversion concepts may contribute to renewable curtailment reduction and resilient power system operation.
Operating Characteristics Under Exploration
The IsochorEngine™ platform is being developed to explore how pressure-based conversion architectures may influence efficiency, fuel utilisation, and operating flexibility under non-steady-state conditions.
Ongoing work focuses on understanding how near-constant-volume combustion and pulse-to-rotary conversion affect energy recovery, fuel consumption, and thermal behaviour across a range of operating modes relevant to constrained and intermittent power systems.
Rather than optimising for a single duty point, the platform is intended to support investigation of performance trade-offs under dynamic operation, rapid start–stop cycling, and variable load conditions.
Fuel Flexibility as a System Attribute
The IsochorEngine™ architecture is inherently fuel-agnostic, enabling exploration of operation across a wide spectrum of gaseous and synthetic fuels.
This includes conventional fuels used in existing energy systems, as well as renewable and low-carbon fuels such as hydrogen, ammonia, and synthetic e-fuels. The platform allows comparative evaluation of combustion behaviour, efficiency characteristics, and integration considerations across different fuel types and blends.
This fuel flexibility supports system-level learning around transition pathways, infrastructure compatibility, and operational implications as energy systems evolve toward lower-carbon fuels.
Integrated Operation of Electrolysis, Storage, and Conversion
The concept centres on a co-located system that captures surplus renewable generation during periods of network congestion and converts it into locally stored hydrogen rather than curtailing output.
When export capacity is constrained, excess electricity is directed to a dynamically operated electrolyser, with hydrogen stored on site to decouple energy capture from immediate grid conditions. Stored hydrogen can later be reconverted to electricity using the IsochorEngine™ platform, Isochor’s pressure-based conversion architecture.
By integrating electrolysis, storage, and conversion at a single location, the system supports pilot-scale exploration of operational behaviour under intermittent supply, variable duty cycles, and constrained network conditions. The focus is on generating system-level learning around curtailment reduction and local operability, rather than optimising individual components in isolation.
Conceptual block diagram illustrating co-located capture, storage, and pressure-based reconversion of curtailed renewable energy.
