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[Due to the increasing size of the archives, each topic page now contains only the prior 365 days of content. Access to older stories is now solely through the Monthly Archive pages or the site search function.]
Michigan State University Receives $2.5M ARPA-E Award to Build Wave Disc Engine/Generator for Series Hybrid Applications
October 31, 2009
| Schematic model of a wave disk engine, showing combustion and shockwaves within the channels. Source: MSU. Click to enlarge. |
Researchers from Michigan State University have been awarded $2.5 million from the Department of Energy’s ARPA-E program (earlier post) to complete its prototype development of a new gasoline-fueled wave disc engine and electricity generator that promises to be five times more efficient than traditional auto engines in electricity production, 20% lighter, and 30% cheaper to manufacture.
The wave disc engine, a new implementation of wave rotor technology, was earlier developed by the Michigan State group in collaboration with researchers from the Warsaw Institute of Technology. About the size of a large cooking pot, the novel, hyper-efficient engine could replace current engine/generator technologies for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.
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Scuderi Releases Video Footage of Running Split-Cycle 1L Prototype
October 08, 2009
| Simplified pressure-volume curve for the Scuderi Engine. Source: Scuderi Group. Click to enlarge. |
Scuderi Group, LLC has released the first video footage (with sound) of its split-cycle Scuderi Engine prototype running, on its own, in the laboratory test cell. The two-minute video, the first to show the naturally-aspirated one-liter gasoline prototype engine in operation, provides a view of the engine as it undergoes testing, proving the concept of Firing After Top Dead Center.
In September at the Frankfurt show, the Scuderi Group announced that it had proven the concept of Firing After Top Dead Center and that the naturally aspirated, 1-liter prototype was running. Preliminary test results have matched earlier computer simulation projections. (Earlier post.)
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Concept: Garric Rotary Variable Compression Ratio Engine
September 25, 2009
| Basic components of the Garric engine. Click to enlarge. |
A pair of Florida entrepreneurs, Rick Ivas and Gary Kelley, are developing the concept of the Garric engine: a rotary, variable compression ratio engine promising a combination of high power and torque and low fuel consumption.
With a 3.8-inch piston bore (comparable to a contemporary midsize V6) and a 10-inch toroidal radius, the Garric engine is calculated to deliver more than 225 hp (168 kW) of power and 733 lb-ft (994 Nm) of torque while running at 1050 rpm. Fuel consumption is estimated to be approximately one-third to one-quarter of current production V-6 engines.
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Grail Engine Adopts Enerpulse Pulse Plugs for Forced Semi-Homogeneous Charged Compression Ignition in Concept Two-Stroke Engine
September 08, 2009
| Rendering of the Grail Engine. Click to enlarge. |
Grail Engine Technologies, the designer of a two-stroke engine using forced semi-homogeneous charged compression ignition (FS-HCCI) combustion, has adopted the Pulstar pulse plugs from Enerpulse (earlier post). The Pulstar product offers very high power spark discharge, on the order of 1MW, to accelerate combustion pressures enabling forced semi-homogeneous combustion for all conditions.
HCCI is a combustion regime in which well-mixed fuel, exhaust gas and air are compressed to the point of auto-ignition. Unlike a spark ignition gas engine or diesel engine, HCCI produces a low-temperature, flameless release of energy throughout the entire combustion chamber. All of the fuel in the chamber is burned simultaneously. HCCI combustion can deliver a very efficient engine, potentially providing a 20% to 30% boost in gasoline engine efficiency without the NOx or PM emissions of a diesel.
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RadMax Axial Vane Rotary Diesel Engine Drawings Released for Bid
July 07, 2009
| Rad Max assembly. Source: REGI US. Click to enlarge. |
REGI US, Inc. and Reg Technologies Inc. have completed a final set of manufacturing drawings for the RadMax Diesel Engine, and have released them competitive bid.
The companies are developing an improved axial vane type rotary engine known as the RadMax. The RadMax design was mainly developed by Radian Milparts and assigned to REGI US, Inc. in December 2005. (Earlier post.) The RadMax engine has only two unique moving parts, the vanes (up to 12) and the rotor; the design makes it possible to produce up to 24 continuous power impulses per one rotation that is vibration-free and extremely quiet.
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UK LowCVP Launches ‘Technology Challenge’ to Accelerate Low Carbon Vehicle Innovation; Libralato Engines First Registrant
June 08, 2009
| The first registrant in the Challenge is Libralato Engines, developer of a novel rotary engine (cutaway shown) promising a 5.5% gain in combustion efficiency and 50% reduction in NOx emissions. Click to enlarge. |
The UK Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership is launching a Technology Challenge to provide a platform for promising innovations to be showcased to senior managers and directors of the component and vehicle manufacturers. The LowCVP is calling on UK innovators to submit creative concepts with the potential to cut emissions from road vehicles without the need for radical new infrastructure. The target of the Challenge is mainstream passenger cars producing less than 80 g CO2/km.
The LowCVP Technology Challenge is supported by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) and with an associated media partner, Cleantech Investor.
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Australian Cam-Drive Gasoline Engine Reaches 39.5% Efficiency in Independent Testing; Potential for Production Engine in China
June 06, 2009
| The 2.4-liter X4V2 prototype was originally designed for an aviation application. Click to enlarge. |
Australia-based Revetec is designing what it calls the Controlled Combustion Engine (CCE)—a cam-drive gasoline spark-ignited internal combustion engine that is smaller, lighter, cleaner, less expensive to manufacture and that produces higher torque due to higher mechanical transfer than equivalent conventional engines.
Revetec has prototyped 6 different versions of Revetec engine designs over the last 10 years. The latest version, the X4V2, was designed as a development engine for the aviation industry, and in early 2008 it was independently tested by Orbital Australia.
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Concept Engine: Ilmor Engineering to Show Cutaway of 5-Stroke Engine at Engine EXPO
May 07, 2009
| Rendering of the Ilmor 5-stroke concept engine. Click to enlarge. |
Ilmor Engineering will present a new cutaway version of the Ilmor 5-stroke concept engine at the upcoming Engine EXPO 2009, 16-18 June, in Stuttgart, Germany.
Ilmor is a UK-based independent engine design, development, testing and manufacturing company, founded in 1984 by Mario Illien, Paul Morgan and Roger Penske. It traditionally has focused on racing engines, although its business is becoming increasingly diversified, with recent projects in production automotive industries (including diesel), among others. It is also a member of the UK Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership.
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Concept: AET Reaches Final Development Stage of OX2 Barrel Engine
April 30, 2009
| Exploded view of the OX2 Engine. Click to enlarge. |
Advanced Engine Technologies Inc. says it has reached the final development stage of its OX2 rotary engine, achieving a performance objective of more than 300 lb-ft (407 N·m) of torque along with 46 hp (34 kW) at an approximate operating speed of 760 rpm.
The OX2 engine was conceived in Australia by inventor Steve Manthey. The engine is an 8-cylinder barrel configuration, using a stationary head and cam plate, and rotating cylinder block and piston plates. Each cylinder fires twice per revolution and two cylinders fire simultaneously, resulting in four times the output per revolution of a conventional four-stroke engine at the same displacement. The engine can be adapted to run any combustible gas or liquid as fuel.
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Concept: Honda R&D Developing Variable Compression Ratio Engine with Dual Piston Mechanism
April 22, 2009
Engineers from Honda R&D Co., Ltd. presented a pair of papers at the SAE 2009 World Congress describing the development of a variable compression ratio (VCR) engine enabled by a dual piston mechanism. The compact VCR uses the inertia force of the piston and external hydraulic pressure to raise and to lower an outer piston to switch the compression ratio between low and high stages.
In testing in an otherwise conventional production 2.0-liter, 4-cylinder engine, the dual piston mechanism was able to adjust the engine from a CR of 9.6 to 14.2 and back again. Combining the high compression ratio with the Atkinson cycle, the engineering team demonstrated a 7.4% improvement in fuel economy in operation over the Japanese 10-15 cycle. As part of the study, the team also demonstrated switching durability of the dual piston mechanism of more than one million cycles.
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Scuderi Group Unveils Cutaway Model of First Production Prototype of Split Cycle Engine
April 20, 2009
| Model of the working prototype. The engine is packaged as a research engine, with easy access for instrumentation, a balancer shaft, etc., not as a production unit. Click to enlarge. |
The Scuderi Group unveiled a cutaway model of the first proof-of-concept prototype for its Scuderi Split-Cycle Engine (earlier post) at the SAE World Congress in Detroit. The engine cutaway is an exact duplicate of the prototype undergoing testing and analysis by SwRI in San Antonio, Texas. First firing of the working prototype is slated for May, according to President Sal Scuderi.
The prototype is of the naturally-aspirated Split Cycle gasoline engine, and is intended to be a proof of the basic technology of the split cycle with firing after Top Dead Center (one of the key attributes of the engine and cycle). Subsequent implementation of the Split Cycle will be a turbocharged split cycle unit, an air hybrid version of the engine, and a diesel-fueled version.
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Concept: Compact Two-Cycle, Co-generating Piston-Driven Turbine to Deliver 60+% Efficiency
April 09, 2009
| One implementation of the two-cycle Reinhardt Turbine. Click to enlarge. |
A German company, vv-tec GmbH, is developing a compact piston-driven turbine—the Reinhardt Turbine, named after its inventor—that it says is a two-cycle (gas and steam) thermodynamic process machine that can be built with conventional components and can achieve efficiency of at least 60%.
The engine components are contained within a sphere. The first cycle is a “conventional” combustion engine process using a combustible fuel with the crankless (i.e., free) pistons converting their linear motion to rotary via a sinus disc. Waste heat is transferred within the sphere to create steam in a closed process that then drives the second cycle and set of pistons (built around the first set), using a similar sinus disc.
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Lotus Engineering to Showcase Omnivore Engine Concept in Geneva
February 25, 2009
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| The Lotus Omnivore engine. Click to enlarge. |
Lotus Engineering will display a single-cylinder research engine monoblock demonstrating the architecture of the Omnivore engine concept at the upcoming 79th International Geneva Motor Show. (Earlier post.)
The Omnivore was designed in collaboration with Queen’s University Belfast and Orbital Corporation Limited Australia for high thermal efficiency when fueled on any alcohol-based fuel or gasoline. It features an innovative variable compression ratio system and uses a two-stroke operating cycle with Orbital FlexDI direct fuel injection. It is ideally suited to flex-fuel operation with a higher degree of optimization than is possible with existing four stroke engines, according to Lotus.
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ETH Zürich Developing Pneumatic Hybrid Engine; Approaches Hybrid-Electric Performance at Lower Cost
February 01, 2009
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| Pneumatic hybrid engine on the test bench. Photo: P. Rüegg / ETH Zurich. Click to enlarge. |
Researchers at ETH Zürich are developing a pneumatic hybrid engine—an internal combustion engine connected to a compressed air tank instead of a battery system. A member of the ETH research team, which is led by Lino Guzzella, Professor of Thermotronics, will present a paper on their work at the upcoming SAE World Congress 2009 in Detroit in April—one of a number to be presented on the topic there.
The pneumatic hybrid engine, which follows the downsizing and supercharging paradigm, offers a fuel-saving potential that is almost equal to that of hybrid electric powertrains while inducing much lower additional mass and cost penalties, according to the ETH Zürich researchers.
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Stratified Charge Engine With Two-Stage Combustion Mechanism Shows 17% Reduction in Fuel Consumption Without Direct Injection
December 29, 2008
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| Two-stage combustion mechanism in twin swirl combustion (1, zone containing pure air; 2, spark plug; 3, turbulizer; and 4, zone containing the fuel-rich mixture). Click to enlarge. Credit: ACS |
A team of researchers from Istanbul Technical University (ITU) in Turkey has presented a 1.6-liter stratified charge gasoline engine featuring a twin swirl combustion chamber operating with a two-stage combustion mechanism and experimentally shown that it can deliver a 17% reduction in fuel consumption with a 7% increase in power compared to a conventional 1.6-liter port-injected engine.
The proposed combustion mechanism does not require high fuel injection pressures and can be applied on current production engines without significant modification and without direct injection fuel systems, according to the researchers. A paper on the work was published online in the ACS journal Energy & Fuels on 15 December.
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Comparison Suggests Gasoline-Powered MUSIC Engine Could Exceed Diesel Efficiency
December 21, 2008
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| Comparison of the BTE of 2.0L MUSIC and 2.4L diesel at different load points. Click to enlarge. |
A recent comparison of a 2.0-liter, four-cylinder implementation of the Merritt Unthrottled Spark Ignition Combustion (MUSIC) engine, initially developed at Coventry University (earlier post) with a 2.4-liter diesel engine suggested that the gasoline-fueled MUSIC engine could attain a higher brake thermal efficiency than the diesel across a wide range of engine loads.
The MUSIC performance data was taken from testing in April 2008 at the end of an Energy Saving Trust funded project. The diesel data was provided, in confidence, by a “reputable” engine R&D company, according to MUSI Engines Ltd. The BMEP conditions at which the diesel results were taken only approximate to those of MUSIC’s, and MUSI said that it did not have details on the exact construction of this diesel or on the parasitic loads which were included in the evaluation of its BTE.
