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Turbo, air-hybrid Scuderi split cycle engine achieves 64 mpg US in simulations; CO2 emissions of 85 g/km

The Scuderi Group released findings from a computer simulation study measuring the performance of the Scuderi split-cycle engine modeled against the European class of “high economy” vehicles. The data showed that a turbocharged/air-hybridized Scuderi Engine (earlier post) can achieve at least 64 mpg US (3.7 liters per 100 km) while emitting 85 g CO2/km.

The average consumption of typical, comparable vehicles is 4.5 l/100 km with average CO2 emissions of 104 g/km.

The comparison is based on a consumption and emissions analysis of 10 typical four-seat small cars ranging from the Audi A1 to the Fiat 500 to the Toyota AYGO, all fitted with the most economical Otto engine variant. The Scuderi Group commissioned Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in San Antonio, Texas, to generate a representative average vehicle in this class with technical data from these models and use this as the basis for a comparison simulation according to the new European driving cycle (NEDC).

A respectable reduction in fuel consumption of almost 20% and similarly lower CO2 emissions in the already economical small car class is just the beginning as we are developing a variety of new technologies to further boost the fuel economy.

—Lutz Deyerling, Vice President of European Operations and Corporate Strategy

Consistent with conventional four-stroke engine designs, the combustion cycle of the Scuderi Engine has two high-pressure strokes—compression and power. The Scuderi Engine achieves its lowest rate of fuel consumption when utilizing a turbocharger in Miller Cycle configuration, which can be readily achieved by differential sizing of compressor and expander cylinders. The design is also optimized for air hybridization (when a small air tank is applied to capture and reuse wasted energy).

Scuderi Group will provide more details on the results of the European economy vehicle study at the IAA Frankfurt Car Show in Germany during a press conference scheduled for 13 September.

Comments

Nick Lyons

Studies, studies, studies...

ToppaTom

There is potential Scuderi investor born every minute, if you believe P.T. Barnum.

pfb

I read about a world famous ICE engineer, Professor Hubert Hisinger, who went to Southwest Research to investigate the validity of the Scuderi engine claims. I also read that this "world famous engineering expert" left there endorsing the engine 100% and will help bring this technology to commercialization. It seems that studies. studies, studies, actually means something, something, something. I don't believe Professor Hizinger would endorse this engine if it came from a three ring circus Tom.

Roger Pham

@pfb,
Lithium battery has gotten much cheaper than before, plus the increase in efficiency of Atkinson-cycle engines, plus a HEV can be made with minimal electrical components, like the Huyndai Sonata hybrid or the Audi A8 hybrid etc...What would your engine offer above and beyond what's already offered by existing technology?

Air hybrid is not as efficient as electric hybrid. Split cycle engine can also run in overexpansion mode as Atkinson cycle engines, however, the extra complication of very high pressure passages and valves that have to withstand very high pressures, valves that has to be actuated twice the frequency of existing 4-stroker's overhead valves...reliability issues yet to be proven...

Technology evolve rapidly. What Prof. Hisinger observed sometimes ago may not be in keeping with what's happening today. Batteries has gotten much cheaper!

pfb

Roger,
I don't know any electric hybrids which have the "potential" to get over 90 MPH, still have the power and torque of a luxury auto, burns cleaner, cost less, and without having the issues of recharging, lack of infrastructure, battery disposal and cost of battery replacement. Seems like a no brainer, and Professor Hubert Hizinger is far from being out of the loop, he is a consultant to many international OEM's, his knowledge of engine designs is second to none.

pfb

Correction, thats 90 miles per gallon not mph

Roger Pham

What luxury auto can get over 90 mpg? Do you know any that uses ICE (Combustion engine) alone?

I know that the most efficient mid-size sedan in the world like the Honda FCX Clarity can get about 78 mpg running on H2 and fuel cell.

The PHEV Volt can get over 100 MPGe when recharged at home more than 1/2 of the time. That's darn good too, and available today. Recharging is no problem, just like you recharge your i-Phone.

pfb

The Scuderi Technology when fully optimize will get mpg never believed possible by any ICE. Your talking about running on H2 and fuel cells to achieve 78 mpg while this technology will someday exceed those number running on regular petro. What about the affordability to the end user? What about the infrastructure? Manufacturing costs? Saftey issues? Maintenance costs?
Replacement parts costs? How many will be qualified to service these cars?
The Scuderi technology is the overwhelming logical choice, and the OEM's are starting to believe. light.

ToppaTom

The Scuderi computer simulation (when available on a CD in the next decade or 2) promises to excel in:

• Affordability to the end user

• Infrastructure cost

• Manufacturing costs

• Safety issues

• Maintenance costs

• Replacement parts costs

All ZERO.

Engineer-Poet
Studies, studies, studies...
Auto companies do studies before they build anything. They just don't publicize most of them. There are few surprises between study and product.
What would your engine offer above and beyond what's already offered by existing technology?
You don't know?
  1. Hybrid systems which can be built in existing engine plants.
  2. Efficiency improvements beyond Atkinson.
  3. Elimination of the traction battery, the motor, the electronics, and all of their cost, warranty and supply-chain issues.
Ask a harder one next time.

TT must be an XOM plant. He seems to troll against any fuel-saving measure.

Roger Pham

@E-P and pfb,
If your simulations showed that Scuderi air hybrid can eliminate the electric motor and still be as efficient as the next gen. full hybrids Prius or Ford Cmax hybrid, run the simulation again!

The beauty of the electric motor is that it has almost no friction, great for use at low loads. The ICE at low loads still has to put up with a lot of frictions of all the moving parts scraping against each other, known as viscous drag. Air hybrid has low round-trip efficiency, from charging to discharging, even if you discount the engine's internal friction. By contrast, using lithium batteries or UltraCap, the round-trip efficiency of electric hybrid can be as high as 80-90%.

Efficiency beyond Atkinson? Previous Scuderi simulations showed max themal efficiency of about 39%, while the best implementation of Atkinson cycle by Yamaha engine research with NG engine showed ~39-40% efficiency years ago. Heck, probably the Prius III engine has already reached 40% thermal efficiency.

The electrical components of the HEV are probably the most reliable parts of the vehicle. The Prius III doesn't even have any belt-driven accessory! What has failed most often are the alternator, the starter, the belt-driven AC compressor, and the water pump. The Prius III have a hermetically sealed AC compressor, meaning no loss of Freon and no premature failure, ditto for the water pump, which runs at a slow speed for most of the time, preventing premature failure in comparison to a water pump that must always run at engine speed. There are no starter nor alternator to fail in the Prius.

What customers have failed to realize is that the price premium of the HEV will pay off in operational cost savings, like a good investment, many times over its initial cost.

Roger Pham

Clarification of above: The Prius III has both electric AC compressor and electric water pump for reliability and energy saving.

Furthermore, a full HEV is only a battery size away from being a PHEV, eliminating petroleum dependency. The occasional-use ICE can run on ethanol or synthetic fuel. With air hybrid, there will be no quick PHEV option for later, and the OEM's will have to start all over to catch up those who have invested heavily in electrification. It may be a losing game for those mfg's who are left behind in electrification.

ToppaTom

i think the ICE engine is the target for any prime mover.

Don't quit poetry EP, there are no fuel-saving measures here.
None, only more computer simulation.

The Scuderi engine was originally the design of Carmelo J. Scuderi. He filed his first patent for an engine in July 2001 and died in September 2002.

Except for these 14 months, the emphasis seems to have been mostly raising money by his survivors; - company president Salvatore Scuderi, (degrees in engineering and law), brother Stephen (patent attorney) brother Nick (marketing) and sister, Deborah (accounting).

They have raised more than $35 million from investors over 10 years, while claiming to develop an engine which is similar to the British Trojan car engine in 1913, Puch in 1923 and DKW in 1931

http://tchgetting2zero.blogspot.com/2006/04/scuderi-engine-could-advance-hybrids.html.

pfb

If HEV and PHEV are the way of the future, Why do they only have a market share of 2%, with projections of only 10%, ten years from now? Lets face it, the internal combustion engine is here to stay for a very long time. The consumer want them, the OEM's continue to develope them, and the Scuderi technology is the perfect engine design to meet all the OEM's future concerns.

Roger Pham

@pfb,
HEV now has over 10% of auto market in Japan. This is a quote from Wikipedia: "For the Japanese auto market, new hybrid car sales jumped from 94,259 in 2008[95] to 334,000 in 2009,[93] and hybrid sales in 2009 represented around 10% of new vehicles sales in Japan. In contrast, the U.S. market share was 2.8% for the same year.[40] These record sales allowed Japan to surpass the U.S. in total new hybrid sales, as the Japanese market represented almost half (48%) of the worldwide hybrid sales in 2009 while the U.S. market represented 42% of global sales.[93]

The Toyota Prius became the first HEV to top annual new car sales in Japan with 208,876 units sold in 2009, and by February 2010 the Prius remained the top selling car, and became so popular that there is a six month waiting list.[40][103] The Insight ranked fifth in overall sales in 2009 with 93,283 units sold."

Repeat: there was a 6-month waiting list for the Prius III in Japan recently.

There weren't enough selection of HEV to choose from in the USA market that prefers larger vehicles. The larger-size HEV's are not dedicated HEV's, but share the same engine and chassis with non-hybrid models. AS such, their engines are too large hence efficiency gain aren't as much as possible. Their fuel tanks are too large that take away valuable trunk space and have a non-foldable rear seats. The batteries should have been stored in the place of the spare tire, instead of taking up valuable trunk space. These little details really take away appeal for non-Prius HEV's.

Reasons: Up to now, OEM's were reluctant to release too many new-technology vehicles for fear that recalls on these new-tech items without long reliability track records can bankrupt their companies. Now, with HEV's track-records of reliability proven through over a decade of experience with HEV's, Huyndai, Audi, VW, Peugeot, Ford, GM, and most other are releasing HEV's with Lithium batteries in increasing numbers and with lower price premium than before, we shall see that HEV's volume will pick up faster in even non-Japanese markets.

ToppaTom

I believe it is unhealthy to weave and believe these fantasies about recalls and reliability.

And substituting a large mild hybrid SUV for a normal large SUV saves MUCH more gas and makes better usage of batteries, than for a smaller car.

American gas is still cheap and it is common knowledge that therefore EVs are not a good financial choice.

And 90% of the Japanese don’t think so, even in Japan.

Roger Pham

">fantasies about recalls and reliability" ???

That's business survival. Toyota has been moving very cautiously regarding Lithium batteries in automobiles...testing, redesign...and more testing, ad nauseum. Having to recall 10,000 cars is 1/10th the cost of having to recall 100,000 cars. No amount of testing can substitute for real-life testing by ten of thousands of real-world drivers. Besides, if the mfg's are not making any more profits from the sale of HEV's vs non-HEV's, then they do not have strong incentive to make a massive switch to HEV's, prefering to wait for more real-world testing by the early adopters.

Look at what the Chinese government have to deal with the fall-out of their over-zealous expansion of their vast high-speed train network: a massive accidents recently with a lot of embarassment, and they have to rethink the whole think after tens of billions USD spent. Always go slow when it comes to new technology.

Roger Pham

American mfg's were aggressively marketing SUV's because of the fat profit margins of these large vehicles vs. the high-mpg vehicles that are less glamorous and hence lower profit margins. You're right, gas was way too cheap, back then, and even though more expensive now, still not pricey enough for many more affluent drivers.

ToppaTom

Do you think EVs are a big risk but other new ICE models are not?

You think they add 2 years of public testing to the years of internal testing?

You MUST be just dreaming this stuff up, moment-to-moment.

The demand for American SUVs is already high whether mfg's aggressively market them or not - because people want and buy them.

The buyers determine sales figures, by how many they buy.

The mfg's do not determine sales volume by how many they make.

Fat profit margins of these large vehicles vs. the high-mpg vehicles is determined by demand; and US built SUVs are the public’s choice - demand is high.


The mfg's would make profits from the sale of hybrid SUVs if there were demand for them.

The demand is for AFFORDABLE hybrid SUVs.

Nobody wants them because they are too expensive to make and are therfore priced too high and so sales are low.

Gas was and STILL IS way too cheap; still not pricey enough for most EVERYbody.

Engineer-Poet
If your simulations showed that Scuderi air hybrid can eliminate the electric motor and still be as efficient as the next gen. full hybrids Prius...
If it can't, so what? The supply chains to make every C-Max a full HEV aren't there. An air hybrid mostly uses existing production capabilities. Don't make "perfect" the enemy of "the best we can do now".
Efficiency beyond Atkinson? Previous Scuderi simulations showed max themal efficiency of about 39%
I've been trying to find where you got this, and struck out. I did find a 5-yr-old claim of 42.6% un-hybridized, with another 10% expected from the air hybrid. Turbocharging allows the compression cylinder to be downsized, which would also improve efficiency by (1) reducing friction and back-work in compression, and (2) making the expansion ratio greater than the compression ratio... which is the Atkinson cycle.
Engineer-Poet
Gas was and STILL IS way too cheap; still not pricey enough for most EVERYbody.
I still see bozos driving jacked-up F250's at 65 MPH in 55 MPH zones in traffic, so yes, gas is still way too cheap. People think it's cheap, when the drain of money for imports is a major part of our economic woes. People don't seem to understand what it's actually doing to them, so they need to have the point driven home by taxes. At least taxes keep the money in the USA.
Roger Pham

@TT,
The newer the technology, the higher the risk. Lithium battery is considered very risky at one time, until new designs make its risk more acceptable. Remember how many laptop batteries did Sony have to recall at one time?

You must be dreaming the stuff about the drivers demanding the mfg's to make those monstrous SUV's. It was the other way around. When I grew up, there was only sedans, station wagons, and pickup trucks, and life went on just fine. The larger station wagons like the Chevy Impala or Caprice, or Ford Crown Victoria can seat 8-9 persons in 3 large benches, and were perfect for large families. Then, Lee Iacocca invented the minivans to speed up demands for new vehicles, and it became a hit, replacing the station wagons. Soon, every soccer moms had got to have a minivan. Then, once the market for minivans was saturated, Detroit decided they must invent new products in order to sell more new vehicles, and through their ingenius marketing, everyone was convinced that they must drive a honking big SUV as a status symbol of machismo. The affluent soccer moms felt subconsciously threatened by these monster tanks, that their minivans can no longer afford enough protection for their precious little kids when broadsided by these monstrosities, so, they, too, must drive a honking big SUV's...and you know the rest of the story.

For HEV's, there were hardly any marketing effort at all! Mfg's just wanted to sell a few to show off their Green Washing...There was no huge profit margin in HEV's as in SUV's. They don't really care if they'll sell any HEV at all, since the profit margin for HEV's were just about the same as for non-HEV. Jusk ask Bob Lutz when he developed the Volt! He surely didn't expect GM to make any dime off of it!

Roger Pham

@E-P and pfb,
Best wishes for the Scuderi group.

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