New Engine Combusts Old Ideas

[boise1]

By Dan Orzech
02:00 AM Aug, 28, 2006

If your next car gets twice the gas mileage of your current vehicle, and belches out only a fraction of the pollution, you may have Carmelo Scuderi to thank.

Scuderi, a Massachusetts engineer and inventor, started tinkering with the fundamentals of the internal combustion engine when he retired in the mid-1990s. The result was a radical new design that could make engines for anything from gas-powered lawn mowers to diesel locomotives lighter, far more efficient, and a whole lot easier on the environment.

Scuderi died in 2002, shortly after patenting the basic concept for his engine. Since then, his children have made it their mission to bring the engine to market. Five of them now work full time for the family startup, the Scuderi Group.

Scuderi began by splitting the heart of the internal combustion engine -- the chamber where air is compressed, mixed with fuel and then ignited -- into two separate cylinders, linked by a passage. Air is compressed in the first cylinder, and then shot through the passage into the second cylinder, where it mixes with the gas and burns.

more--> http://www.wired.com/news/technology/autotech/0,71648-0.html?tw=wn_index_6

[Old and In the Way]

1. Very interesting.

They look to be serious players. They've got their patents in order and that's a big plus for serious investors. It will be interesting to see if they can validate their results when they get to the actual prototyping stage. The fact that they are utiling the basic building blocks found in the IC engine ought to be a big selling point when this is ready to production tool.

Great video presentation on the Scuderi Group website.

[bvar22]

2. Interesting, but

I don't see any advantages over turbocharging.

[mccoyn]

4. There is a video at the wired link.

It explains some advantages, like optimizing the compression piston size seperate from the expansion piston or making a compressed air hybrid. It also explains that it can use a turbo-charger just like a typical ICE.

[mccoyn]

3. Cool, I hope it works.

I especially liked the talk about using the engine to make a compressed air hybrid, except, unlike every other hybrid design I've seen, this won't need the added weight a second power plant. I wonder how the effeciency will stack up against existing hybrid designs.

[rman]

5. sounds a lot more feasible than "free energy"

[formercia]

6. Seems a lot like turbocharging but more complicated. n/t

[ItsTheMediaStupid]

11. It is actually simplier. No belts, no added equipment.

It involves changes that are actually inside the motor including a compression cylinder, an air passage to the combustion chamber and a couple of valves.

[tomreedtoon]

7. I'm sorry, this sounds like a Popular Science boondoggle.

For years, magazines like Popular Science and Popular Mechanics used to do front-page stories about "technological triumphs" that would assure us of greater gas economy, expressways with top speeds of 200 MPH and greater, flying cars and all the rest of that nonsense. Remember the "Wankel Engine"?

These stories were always boondoggles. They turned out to be as true as the Frog Boy and Satan stories on the front of the National Enquirer. They were ideas half-baked and brought to the dinenr table, inedible. For instance, the Wankel Engine had these carbon "wipers" that served the purpose of the piston rings in a conventional internal-combustion engine. They wore out rapidly and had to be replaced often. Imagine taking your car in for an engine rebuild/replacement every 2000 miles.

[Javaman]

8. Exaclty! Where the hell is my flying car!!! nt

[Schema Thing]

9. Huh?

The Wankel engine is hardly a "boondoggle", nor does it need a rebuild every 2000 miles. Mine ran extremely strong at 100K miles.

The 13b engine has been in production for over 30 years, and the newest incarnation has won top engine design awards worldwide.

Will this be revolutionary? Maybe, maybe not. It's hardly in the realm of Frog Boy or Satan stories however. It's real people doing real engineering work.

[phantom power]

10. My view on stories like this is...

if his mousetrap really works that much better, then build it. The most reliable way to shut up the critics is to start selling them.