Ken Rieli - Mission-driven Innovation

PNGinc’s CEO Ken Rieli has accumulated over 40 years of multiphysics experience in research, design, development & testing. As CEO & chief technology officer in his private R&D company (PNGinc), Ken handles all aspects of lab activities and manufacturing including concept design, modeling, lab equipment setup & maintenance, embedded systems design, computer networking, prototyping, testing, CAD/CAM, CNC machining and limited production.

Inventions

• Non-pneumatic tire - first spiral-wound steel belted non-pressurized tire, later adapted by NASA for U.S. lunar rover mission
• Mercury nitrogen laser - designed & built first working mercury/nitrogen laser
• Small industrial ATV - original ATV design was a series hybrid, all-wheel drive vehicle, prototyped in the 1960's with a hydrostatic drive. Produced by LTV Aerospace, this ATV became the world's first volume-produced, all-purpose hybrid vehicle.
• Phoenix Turbine - high-efficiency disc turbines, steam & pressurized gas
• Phoenix PDT™ pulse detonation turbine
• Phoenix ORC Turbogenerators - organic Rankine cycle, solar & waste heat
• Phoenix PDC™ - hyper-efficiency pulse detonation combustion cycle
• Phoenix UCB™ - ultra-clean pyro-catalytic combustion cycle
• Phoenix ASK™ Absolute Security Key system - hacker-proof command & control device protection
• Scan-Ahead Navigator™ - first anti-collision chart information system in the fledgling computer navigation systems industry, designed for oil spill prevention & air traffic safety

Related R&D

• Turbine powered APU’s
• Active suspension systems
• Vehicle instrumentation
• Vehicle electronics integration
• Combustion controls
• Avionics networks
• Autonomous flight control systems
• High-performance jet planforms
• Diesel exhaust treatment
• Biofuels research
• more...