Mesodyne’s goal is to put a power plant in the palm of your hand.

Mesodyne’s patented LightCell™ power generator converts any fuel into electricity via light - increasing the endurance of small systems by 10X over batteries.

Mesodyne is commercializing a new class of power generator that provides efficient, quiet, reliable, long-endurance power from any fuel. The LightCell™ bridges the gap in power sources between batteries and internal combustion engines - bringing a 10x improvement in endurance to a variety of unmanned vehicles, wearables, and other equipment. Specifically, a microcombustor heats a nanophotonic material to incandescence. The nanophotonic material is engineered to emit certain wavelengths of light when heated. The emitted light drives photovoltaic cells to generate electricity.

  • Fuel flexible: The LightCell is compatible with conventional liquid or gaseous fuels, biofuels, and hydrogen.

  • Quiet: The LightCell uses a static conversion process and has virtually no moving parts.

  • Scalable: The LightCell is currently scalable from 50W to 5kW electric, filling the gap in energy technologies between batteries and internal combustion engines. In the future, higher power solutions can be developed depending on customer need.

  • Ready to go: The LightCell requires no charging time, no external sunlight, no maintenance, and has a long shelf life.

Not only does the LightCell benefit small unmanned systems, but also any application limited by battery weight or availability of conventional electric power (grid, solar, wind).

  • The LightCell increases the endurance of fixed wing UAVs by 10X compared to batteries alone. Increased endurance is particularly useful when the UAV needs fly to a remote inaccessible site, perform its mission, and return. Low vibration from Mesodyne’s static conversion process is needed for accurate imaging.

  • The LightCell increases the endurance of unmanned surface vessels and the remote sensors they carry 4-8 times compared to batteries (depending on payload and vessel) enabling more reliable and cheaper data collection to ensure the safety of our oceans and coastal systems. 

  • The LightCell addresses remote industrial instrumentation and scientific stations that are impractical to power by solar, for example at high latitudes or beneath a forest canopy, or where space is not available. Mesodyne offers increased reliability and uptime and makes transportation to the remote site easier by reducing weight.

  • The LightCell unburdens dismounted warfighters on extended missions carrying 10-20 pounds of batteries. Mesodyne could offer a 75% weight reduction, allowing them to carry more ammunition and water, while integrating with existing fuel supply logistics.

Mesodyne’s LightCell converts fuel into electricity via light.

Mesodyne’s patented LightCell™ power generator converts any fuel into electricity via light. The core of the LightCell is a nanophotonic material that is engineered to only emit certain wavelengths of light when heated. The back of this material is heated to incandescence by a novel microcombustor and the light emitted from the front is converted to electricity by photovoltaic cells. Key components include:

  • In the microcombustor a small quantity of fuel is injected into a preheated air stream, where it reacts. The hot reaction products first heat the backside of the nanophotonic material, then transferring their remaining heat to preheat the incoming combustion air, and are finally released at a safe temperature.

  • The nanophotonic material is an array of micro-resonators that preferentially emits light at certain wavelengths when heated. We engineered the micro-resonator geometry to match the emission spectrum to what can be converted by the photovoltaic cells.

  • The photovoltaic cells convert the light into electricity, and are optimized for the wavelengths emitted by the photonic crystal.

Is it safe?
The exterior of the LightCell is touch safe. The combustion process is contained inside the microcombustor and most of the heat is recovered out of the exhaust stream, reducing the exhaust temperature to a safe level.

How is this different from conventional thermophotovoltaics?
Mesodyne’s generator is significantly more efficient than traditional thermophotovoltaics because the light emitted by the nanophotonic material nearly perfectly matches what the PV cell can convert into electricity. Mesodyne’s founders demonstrated the world record efficiency for this type of energy conversion in 2017 during their PhDs at MIT.

Mesodyne was founded in 2018 by Dr. Veronika Stelmakh and Dr. Walker Chan based on their PhD work at MIT on the underlying energy conversion technology. Mesodyne has participated in the Chain Reaction Innovations program at Argonne National Lab and the Air Force Accelerator powered by Techstars, and has been awarded numerous contracts, grants, and prizes from the NSF, AFWERX, DARPA, DOE, and Army.