Bajaj Begins Production of 2-Stroke Direct-Injection Auto Rickshaw
18 May 2007
Bajaj Auto Ltd, India has begun production of autorickshaws—the ubiquitous three-wheel commercial vehicles widely used in India, South East Asia and North Africa—equipped with 2-stroke engines with direct-injection technology from Orbital Corporation.
The 2-stroke Direct Injection (DI) 3-wheeler offers a 30% improvement in fuel efficiency and superior performance.
The new model will initially be released into the local Pune market, with a staged release of the DI vehicles to other identified cities of India.
The positive feedback from our customers was a key part of the DI product confirmation testing. These first customers have enjoyed a 30% fuel economy improvement and experienced significantly improved driving characteristics.
—Rajiv Bajaj, Managing Director
Bajaj expanded its Orbital technology license in September 2006 to include CNG and LPG versions of this product. Orbital 2-stroke direct injection engines are also in production on 2-stroke scooters in Europe and Taiwan.
(A hat-tip to Anthony!)
Can this 2-stroke DI engine also run on Jatropha Biodiesel or Bioethanol?
Posted by: aylmer | 19 May 2007 at 12:56 AM
orbital's technology is for spark ignition engines. It could be used with biohols. Ideally the compression ratio of the engine would be raised to take advantage of the increased octane rating of the fuel.
Posted by: John Schreiber | 19 May 2007 at 07:49 PM
OE's technology has been adapted to run JP5 & JP8 with spark ignition to comply with the 2010 NATO requirement for all engines in the field to run on Heavy Fuel.
One example you may want to research is Mercury Marines Optimax JP Engines.
What they have done (some others are trying it with other technologies) is create a Spark Ignited Heavy Fuel Engine.
I do not know if they have tried to run in Bio-Diesel fuels.
Posted by: Egeek | 21 May 2007 at 03:31 AM
This is good stuff!
They have been working on this for a long time (orbital) that is. in a place like india that has very high relative fuel costs, saving like that have a big impact to the bottom line.
I hope the components quality holds up better than those euro made, thus ensure the projects success.
These guys should also be riding two wheelers with this tech. I have seen FC numbers on suitably engineered engine with Orbital DI in the order of 80 km/l at 50 kmh. these are typical speeds around Indian cities.
The great thing about this tech on two strokes is that at partial load there is little FC penalty moving up in displacement.
As to what it burns, well basically anything this side of (an including) diesel. The alcohols are no problem, the gasses are no problem. Kero is ok and diesel works. There is no real benefit in heavy fuel SI if not for specific applications (military etc) as efficiency drops of due to the lower knock resistance of the heavy fuel. That said, if the biodiesel blend is cleaner and lighter (more kero like) them it would be doable. Something more gasoline like is better for normal on road operation.
Good stuff!
Mike
Posted by: Mike_A | 21 May 2007 at 06:21 AM