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A NEVIS module. The NEVIS Engine Company Ltd. has successfully closed its first round of seed funding to help it further test and develop its current two-cylinder prototype engine as well as to develop awareness of the technology. The Italian company has been developing the prototype with €2.5 million (US$3.3 million) in government grant money. The NEVIS (New Exhaust Valve & Intake System) engine embodies a new two-stroke combustion cycle (the “Bortone” cycle after its inventor) and a new design than combines, among other features, annular (i.e., doughnut-shaped) pistons, modular cylinder construction and a sinusoidal camshaft similar to those adopted...

Hydrogen Engine Center, Inc. (HEC) demonstrated its proprietary ammonia/hydrogen-fueled Oxx Power engine (earlier post) just prior to the annual shareholders’ meeting in Algona, Iowa on 30 May. The test engine—one of the company’s 4.9-liter, 6-cylinder units—was designed to use HEC’s proprietary Oxx Boxx engine controller and a dual-fuel injection system. Although the engine is capable of running exclusively on hydrogen, the test was conducted using 95% ammonia and 5% hydrogen used as a combustion catalyst. The increased density of hydrogen associated with the ammonia fuel provides the engine with significantly more power than hydrogen alone. The small amount of hydrogen...

BMW’s 3-liter twin turbo (earlier post) was named International Engine of the Year 2007 at the ninth annual International Engine of the Year Awards at Engine Expo in Stuttgart, Germany. BMW won two other category awards for its 2.5-liter inline six and 5-liter V10, in addition to having the twin turbo named Best New Engine. The 62 automotive journalists from 30 countries who served as judges also named Volkswagen’s 1.4-liter turbocharged and supercharged TSI unit (earlier post) as best in the 1-liter to 1.4-liter class, with its larger sibling, the 2-liter turbo developed by Audi and applied in the Golf...

An earlier rendering of the VCR mechanism. FEV Engine Technology is displaying a developmental gasoline/E85 turbocharged direct injection (GTDI) engine that also features variable compression ratio (VCR) at the 2007 SAE World Congress. The engine is being developed in-house, in tandem with several other DI engine projects that FEV is working on with various automakers, based on earlier work FEV had done with the VCR platform. While offering the potential to generate V-8 power from a V-6 engine, this concept also provides roughly a 20-25% improvement in fuel consumption. The VCR system is based upon the concept of an eccentric...

GM is applying two new 1.7-liter diesel engines in the new edition Opel Astra. Following Opel’s downsizing strategy, the latest generation common-rail turbo-diesel engines are relatively compact, yet with their high power output per liter and power reserves they boast higher fuel economy and low emissions. These bring the total number of diesels available in the bestselling Astra line to six. Coupled with six-speed manual transmissions as standard, the new 1.7-liter CDTI ECOTEC unit with 81 kW/110 hp produces 140g of CO2 per kilometer, and the 92 kW/125 hp version 146 g/km. Fuel consumption is an average 5.2/5.4 liters...

A new engine design could significantly improve fuel efficiency for cars and SUVs, at a fraction of the cost of today's hybrid technology. For Daniel Cohn, a senior research scientist at MIT's Plasma Science and Fusion Center, the ­century-­old internal-combustion engine is still a source of inspiration. As he strides past the machinery and test equipment in the MIT Sloan Automotive Laboratory, his usually reserved demeanor drops away. "An engine this size," he says, pointing out an ordinary-looking 2.4-liter midsize gasoline engine, "would be a rocket with our technology." By way of explaining that technology, he shows off a turbocharger...

Thanks to changes in Chrysler's manufacturing plans for European market minivans and the popularity of Jeep diesels, the US market may eventually get diesel minivans. For the past decade, the Euro market vans were assembled at a plant in Austria, but the new van production will be consolidated at Chrysler's St. Louis, MO assembly plant. That means that the VM Motori diesel engines that are offered in European vans will be shipped to the US for installation. The current diesel doesn't meet new emissions standards, but Mercedes is developing a new 2.2L two-stage turbo diesel for 2010. This engine...

Germany’s Automobilewoche reports that with the change in Volkswagen’s top management is coming a change in strategy for hybrids. Martin Winterkorn, who formerly headed the company’s Audi AG unit, became CEO after Bernd Pischetsrieder resigned at the end of 2006. Pischetsrieder had brought in Wolfgang Bernhard from DaimlerChrysler to run the Volkswagen unit. Berhard has now left (as of today), and Winterkorn will personally oversee the VW brand for the time being. Now, rather than target a mild hybrid Jetta for sale into the California market in 2008 as described by Pischetsrieder, Volkswagen will focus first on a full hybrid...

Delphi has introduced a new type of diesel engine oil condition sensor, designed to help increase engine reliability, reduce warranty issues and bring further cost reductions for vehicle operators. The new system is now available for integration with vehicle development programs. Current production technologies measure the viscosity and dialectric constant of the oil, providing data from which an estimation of oil condition can be made. These technologies allow a significant increase in change intervals compared with the older predictive techniques that estimate condition based on the drive cycle. Delphi’s technology takes a further substantial step forward by providing additional data...

The 2.2-liter PSA engine Mitsubishi Motors Corporation (MMC) and PSA Peugeot Citroën have signed an agreement under which PSA Peugeot Citroën will supply MMC with diesel engines. Under this agreement, PSA Peugeot Citroën will start supplying Mitsubishi Motors with its 2.2-liter common-rail, direct-injection diesel engine from mid-2007. This engine will also be fitted with a PSA Peugeot Citroën patented particulate filter. Mitsubishi Motors is introducing its new Outlander SUV in Europe this month, and towards the end of 2007, will add a new diesel version powered by the PSA diesel. PSA will also apply this same engine in the Peugeot...

A recent MIT analysis shows that the energy balance of corn ethanol is actually so close that several factors can easily change whether ethanol derived from that process ends up a net energy winner or loser. Further analysis shows that making ethanol from cellulosic sources such as switchgrass has far greater potential to reduce fossil energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. A graduate student in MIT’s Department of Engineering, Tiffany A. Groode, performed a life cycle analysis on the production of corn ethanol, as others have done. Groode, however, incorporated the uncertainty associated with the values of many of...

As I suggested in an earlier piece on the alternative fuels and vehicle show held recently this month in Santa Monica, most such vehicles exhibit a singular lack of attitude and panache. Alt fuel connotes austerity, sacrifice, less-is-more. Alt fuel vehicles are earnest and well meaning, but frankly not much fun, and bespeak the latent Puritanism always waiting to resurface in American culture. I would suggest that this is a bit of a problem in marketing terms. Why would I want to buy a hairshirt of a vehicle with cramped dimensions, a stodgy appearance, and sluggish performance? Depending upon my...

John McQueen checks his 275-gallon tank of restaurant grease that is seperating, a process necessary in the production of biodiesel fuel. HAMMONTON — John McQueen still hasn't figured out how to turn worthless metals into gold or grow money on trees. But he can perform one transmutation that might qualify as modern alchemy: Making dirty, used restaurant cooking oil into a cheap petroleum substitute. “We come from the greatest country in the world, and I don't think we should be dependent on foreign, or even domestic, oil producers who are going to charge us so much money to fill up...

Ford has developed an electric-drive crossover concept car in conjunction with Airstream—the Ford Airstream Concept—that is powered by a hydrogen-electric plug-in hybrid drivetrain—the HySeries Drive. The HySeries drive in the AirStream Concept combines a lithium-ion battery pack with a compact fuel cell system as a range extender—the fuel cell’s sole function is to recharge the lithium-ion battery pack as needed. (This series-hybrid electric drive design approach is similar to that taken by GM with its E-Flex family and the Chevrolet Volt. Earlier post.) The new fuel cell, supplied by Ford partner Ballard, operates in a steady state, allowing a...

Leveraging the work it did with its V12 TDI R10 racing car (earlier post), Audi has applied a 6.0-liter, Euro-5 compliant 12-cylinder diesel TDI engine—the first V12 passenger car engine—in a concept version of the Audi Q7. The Audi Q7 V12 TDI study delivers 368 kW (493 hp) and a massive 1,000 Nm (737 lb-ft) of torque. The power of the turbocharged V12 TDI takes the SUV from 0 to 100 kph in 5.5 seconds, with fuel consumption of 11.9 liters/100km (20 mpg US). 60tdi3 The Q7 V12 TDI’s cylinders actually sweep a greater volume than the racing engine,...

Sales of hybrids in the US rose 24% in December 2006 compared to the prior year, with 22,625 units sold. That was sufficient to push the total number of hybrids sold in the US in 2006 past the quarter million mark to more than 251,000 units—an increase of 22% compared to 2005. That figure does not include sales of GM’s Saturn VUE Green Line hybrid. Overall, the light duty vehicle market in the US shrank 3.6% in December 2006 from the year before, and declined 2.6% for the year to 16,556,433 units, according to Autodata. Hybrids thus represented 1.58%...

Toyota will introduce its FT-HS hybrid sports car concept at the 2007 North American International Auto Show in Detroit next week. This two-plus-two concept is a front-engine, rear-drive sports car with a projected zero-to-60 acceleration in the four-second range. A powerful V6, 3.5L-engine is coupled with a sports hybrid system with a target power output of approximately 400 hp (298 kW). The FT-HS concept was a joint undertaking of Calty, Toyota’s North American-based, research and design center located in Newport Beach, Calif., and Toyota’s California-based Advanced Product Strategy Group. The design team was assigned the task of creating a...

EPA “YourMPG” Data Reveal Diesel Vehicle Drivers Consistently Achieve Higher MPG Than Figures Displayed On Window Stickers WASHINGTON – Diesel-powered vehicles deliver more real-world miles per gallon than the numbers on new-car window stickers currently indicate, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s “YourMPG” database. The findings were detailed in EPA’s “Final Technical Supporting Document” accompanying the agency’s new fuel economy labeling rule released Tuesday. The “YourMPG” data, compiled by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, includes 221 diesel drivers measuring their own fuel economy and providing their real-world MPG to an Internet database. EPA then compared this real-world data with...

Imagine at some point in the future stopping at the pump for a fill up and choosing from alternative fuels as well as the usual suspects. Do you want unleaded, corn, soybean or diesel tree? Diesel tree? Granted, that last choice may lie farther in the future than the others. Currently, little is known about the Brazilian native tree save that it produces a thin maple syrup-like resin called copaifera, an oil commonly found in cosmetics, that can be used as diesel fuel. (Copaifera is a legume loosely related to soybeans, a biofuel source already gaining statewide attention.) University...

A number of recent small announcements could add up to a significant boost for the biodiesel industry in the long term. Just last month, a couple of heavyweights in the global farm equipment market endorsed using biodiesel in their products. Case IH was the latest to announce its support. Every piece of equipment will now leave Case IH factories with a biodiesel blend in the tank, and it has approved the use of B20 (20 per cent biodiesel and 80 per cent petroleum-based diesel) in all Case IH engines. "One hundred per cent factory fill of a biodiesel blend is...