Marko Motors LLC

New Thermodynamics for a Better Solar Engine!

Welcome to the homepage of Marko Motors LLC, a Seaside Heights NJ based company with a focus on developing novel Stirling engines, which take advantage of intermolecular attractive forces to improve the thermodynamic efficiency.

The need for reliable mechanical energy has existed throughout the history of humanity. Fossil fuels are a nonrenewable resource with significant geopolitical issues surrounding their availability; in addition, excessive carbon dioxide released to the atmosphere adds to the risks of global climate change. Photovoltaic solar cells are a growing and emerging market, but they still have many limitations, including higher costs compared to fossil fuels, environmental damage (such as mining rare earth metals) during manufacturing, and most significantly they are only effective during sunlight hours.

The goal of Marko Motors is to use my novel thermodynamic theories to fabricate solar engines to generate renewable motive and electrical energy. Rather than use photovoltaic cells, these engines will be based on a modified Stirling cycle heat engine utilizing extremely high pressure supercritical and near-supercritical working fluids. Earlier I demonstrated on paper that the intermolecular attractive Van der Waals forces present in all fluids, which enable fluids to condense into liquids, can be utilized to enhance the efficiency of saturated and supercritical thermodynamic heat engines to exceed that of the Carnot efficiency. This theory has been published in the American Institute of Physics peer-reviewed journal Advances, and the validating experimental demonstration of this theory has been published in Nature Scientific Reports. With heat engines of enhanced thermodynamic efficiency, a proximate heat pump to extract heat from the ambient can use small temperature differentials from the ambient environment to power the heat engine, resulting in useful mechanical energy out from the solar-heated air. As this engine uses Van der Waals intermolecular attractive forces rather than the photovoltaic effect, there is no need for direct sunlight while utilizing energy from the sun, and thus the engine can operate in the dark at night, in bad weather, or underground.

Further information can be obtained via the manuscripts:
- Marko, M.D. Experimental observations of the effects of intermolecular Van der Waals force on entropy. Sci Rep 12, 7105 (2022). https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-11093-z
- The saturated and supercritical Stirling cycle thermodynamic heat engine cycle, AIP Advances, Volume 8, Issue 8, Pg 085309, Published 10 August 2018, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5043523">10.1063/1.5043523.

Issued Patents for this start up include:
- “Condensing Stirling Cycle Heat Engine” (11/078,869), filed 9 September 2016, Issued 3 August 2021
- “Isochoric Piston-Cylinder Heat Pump” (10/934,971), filed 17 July2018, Issued 2 March 2021

Matthew Marko is the sole owner of this start-up venture, overseeing all aspects of the technology and business development. He holds an MBA degree from Rutgers University; a Ph.D (2015) in mechanical engineering from Columbia University, with a thesis in tribology (friction and lubrication); a Master of Science in physics from Johns Hopkins University (2009); a Master of Engineering in mechanical engineering with a concentration in thermal engineering and a graduate certificate in power plant design (2006); as well as a Bachelor of Engineering in mechanical engineering and Bachelor of Science in physics from Stevens Institute (2006).

To contact the owner, Matthew Marko, send email to mattdmarko@gmail.com, or through LinkedIn.