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International chemical company Rhodia is launching two sets of materials for the formulation of deNOx catalysts showing high performance and hydrothermal durability for NOx trap technologies. Rhodia presented the emissions control materials, along with new light weight materials for weight reduction, at this week’s SAE 2008 World Congress in Detroit. Both NOx Storage Catalyst (NSC) and Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) technologies have shown limited efficiency at low temperature (<250°C) and poor durability due to the thermal deterioration at temperatures > 750°C with steam. Rhodia’s new materials address these limitations. Materials for NOx Storage Catalyst technologies (NSC). NSC are sensitive to...

The low-cost Indian "peoples car" has finally been shown in public for the first time at the New Delhi Auto Expo. Developed by Tata Motors to a target price of $2,500, the four seater has a 624cc gasoline engine mounted under the rear seat and is called the Nano. There has been a lot concern that meeting the price target would require Tata to skimp on emission controls and safety. The manufacturer claims that the 33hp engine meets current Euro IV emissions standards and is cleaner than most of the scooters running around on Indian streets right now. They...

At last week's dealer show in Las Vegas, a picture of Ford's upcoming 4.4-liter V8 diesel powerplant was leaked to the Internet... ouch. The new powerplant is hardly a secret (we were reporting the first hints of it in June 2006, and the legal issues surrounding the engine in June 2007), but this is the first time the public has seen a photo of the new diesel in its metallic flesh. Designed to offer comparable acceleration to the current 5.4-liter gasoline Triton, the new engine should be rated at about 330 hp and 420 lb-ft of torque. Fuel economy...

For decades, the Ford Mustang has been a symbol of affordable performance. While the average GT will still run you less than $30,000, for many that is merely the starting point. Next is the booming Ford Mustang aftermarket business, where you can beef up every square inch of your ponycar. One item not commonly found in a Ford Racing catalog is an Aston Martin Vanquish V12 engine, but after hearing one in the engine bay of a beautiful blue stallion, we think that problem should be corrected. Hit the jump to view video of a very well-modified Mustang that has...

There’s a strange wave phenomenon that’s plagued rocket scientists for years, a lurking threat with the power to destroy an engine at almost any time. For decades, scientists have had a limited understanding of how or why it happens because they could not replicate or investigate the problem under controlled laboratory conditions. Scientists generally believe that these powerful and unstable sound waves, created by energy supplied by the combustion process, were the cause of rocket failures in several U.S. and Russian rockets. Scientists have also observed these mysterious oscillations in other propulsion and power-generating systems such as missiles and gas...

FEV will exhibit a diesel-electric hybrid version of the Mahindra & Mahindra Scorpio SUV at the 2008 SAE World Congress, 14-17 April in Detroit, Michigan. Mahindra developed the diesel hybrid version of the vehicle with support from FEV, a global powertrain and vehicle engineering company. FEV will also show a number of other powertrain developments at the event, including a 2-step variable compression ratio (VCR) mechanism for medium- and heavy-duty engines; a spray-guided turbocharged gasoline engine; a new diesel aftertreatment control system; and a new low-height cylinder head concept. The Scorpio hybrid. FEV contributed to the hybrid powertrain systems development...

The new four-cylinder diesel family offers improved performance, torque, emission properties and fuel economy. Mercedes-Benz has introduced a new generation of four-cylinder diesel engines with improved performance, torque, emission properties and fuel economy. The new engine family will supersede four different powerplants. The new engine will debut in the C-Class this fall, but will eventually be fitted in a number of variants across a wide range of model series, including the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter. Mercedes-Benz says it also earmarking the engine family for use in hybrid vehicles. In its most powerful variant, the new 2,143 cc four-cylinder unit delivers up...

Nissan Motor Co. plans to break into the U.S. market for light commercial vehicles, and the move means more work for Cummins Inc. The Columbus company will make diesel engines for the three new offerings, Nissan said. Nissan wouldn't discuss specifics, but officials said the vehicles will range from pickup trucks to buses and that they'll hit the market in the first half of 2010, according to the Associated Press. Nissan officials made the announcement at a Monday press conference in Detroit. Nissan will spend $118 million to expand a Canton, Miss., production plant to build the vehicles, and German-based...

The Eliica (or the Electric Lithium-Ion Car) is a battery electric vehicle prototype, or concept car designed by a team at Keio University in Tokyo, led by Professor Hiroshi Shimizu. The 5.1 metre (16.7 feet) car runs on a lithium-ion battery and can accelerate from 0-100 km/h (60 mph) in four seconds. In 2004, the Eliica reached a speed of 370 km/h (230 mph) on Italy's Nardo High Speed Track. The team's goal is to exceed 400 km/h (250 mph), breaking the record set by today's street-legal gasoline-powered vehicles. The Eliica weighs in at 2400 kg (5291 lbs) and seats...

Right side of the new V8 shows lack of exhaust manifold. Intake route is straight into the top of the intake cam boxes. General Motors has taken some of the wraps off of its 2010 Duramax diesel V8, revealing clever design features and technologies that clearly push the state-of-the-art in Vee-type compression-ignition engines. Unveiled during a media briefing at its Milford, MI, Proving Grounds, the new 4.5-L powerplant will be one of the most powerful, lowest-emitting, and package-efficient light-duty V8 diesels in the marketplace, company engineers claimed. The new Duramax is scheduled to enter production in late 2009 at...

DEARBORN, Mich. - Soon after Jim Farley became Ford Motor Co.'s marketing chief after a 17-year career at Toyota, he took a spin in a subcompact with Ford's new direct-injection, turbocharged engine. "I couldn't wipe the smile off my face," Farley said. "I've never driven a Toyota like that, ever. The torque, out of that kind of displacement — in this case a 4-cylinder — was shocking." It's a good thing he feels that way, because one of Farley's first and most critical assignments as vice president of global marketing will be to sell Ford's engine — dubbed EcoBoost —...

The Coates Spherical Rotary Valve Engine is the most advanced in the world. A conventional piston engine ignites the fuel and air mixture in the combustion cycle and evacuates the gas by-products in the exhaust cycle. These cycles occur thousands of times per minute per cylinder. Through the rotation of the camshaft, a spring-loaded poppet valve opens to enable the fuel and air mixture to enter the firing chamber during the induction stroke. The camshaft then closes the intake valve during the compression and combustion stroke of the cylinder and opens a second spring-loaded valve to vent the cylinder...

Manufacturer says they were sold for use only in civilian craft. The U.S. State Department is investigating how aircraft engines made near Montreal ended up in attack helicopters in China. The maker, Pratt and Whitney Canada, says it did nothing illegal. It delivered 10 engines to Bejing in 2001 and 2002 on condition they be used only in civilian aircraft. The Liberal government of the day approved the deal, a decision the present Conservative government is supporting. But Washington is not happy. If the engines contain U.S. technology or parts, the company could be hit with big fines for violating...

The U.S. State Department said on Tuesday it was investigating how engines made by a Canadian subsidiary of United Technologies Corp wound up in prototypes of the Z-10, China's first domestically developed military attack helicopter. State Department spokesman Karl Duckworth said information was being gathered before deciding whether to take any action. "We are reviewing the matter and have no further comments at this time," he said.

REGI US, Inc. and Reg Technologies have completed a prototype, proof-of-concept pump that is suitable for customer demonstrations. The RadMax Rad Max, based on RandCam/RadMax sliding-vane rotary engine technology (earlier post), is a 12-vane device that produces 48 pump actions every revolution. As a pump for water or fuel, the prototype 140-pound RadMax Rad Max has a theoretical displacement of more than 2,000 gpm at 3,600 rpm. The solution is scalable with minimal design changes, and many of the parts are interchangeable between different sized pumps. /The completed pump prototype is 10-inches in diameter and weighs 140 pounds. Maximum...

Depending on drive cycle...... Initial simulation studies of a prototype heavy-duty air-hybrid engine being developed by engineers at Volvo Powertrain, UCLA and Sturman Industries show a 4-18% improvement in fuel economy over a wide range of driving cycles. The amount of improvement depends on the cycle. The addition of a low-temperature EGR circuit could boost that improvement by another three to four percentage points, according to the research team. The goal of the project, co-funded by the DOE, is to develop and demonstrate a heavy duty air-power-assist (APA) engine for a refuse vehicle with a 15% improvement in fuel efficiency...

At the annual Management Briefing Seminars in Traverse City, Michigan, Chrysler’s Executive Vice President - Product Development, Frank Klegon, outlined the company’s powertrain strategy with a focus on improving fuel economy. As background, Klegon said that the company anticipates that diesels will represent up to 15% of new vehicle sales within 10 years. He also said that Chrysler thinks that in the next 5 to 10 years, hybrids will represent up to another 15% of the market, “but may grow even higher due to government regulations and as costs come down.” Diesel Engines. On the diesel front, Chrysler currently offers...

The crystalline structure of boric acid. Boron atoms are shown as blue spheres, oxygen as pink, and hydrogen as brown. Molecular forces that bind the layers in the lattice enable them to slide over one another with very low friction. Scientists at the US Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory have begun to combine nanoparticles of boric acid—known primarily as a mild antiseptic and eye cleanser—with traditional motor oils in order to improve their lubricity and by doing so increase energy efficiency. In laboratory tests, these new boric acid suspensions have reduced by as much as two-thirds the energy...

The Liquid Piston engine. A) full housing. B) Transparent housing showing principle components. LiquidPiston, developers of a new engine architecture they claim will achieve 50% fuel efficiency (compared to the ~30% of existing engines) and drastically reduce pollutant emissions (earlier post), closed a $1.25 million seed investment round with Adams Capital Management and Northwater Capital. The architecture is based on a “High-Efficiency Hybrid Cycle” (HEHC) thermodynamic cycle, which borrows elements from Otto, Diesel, Atkinson and Rankin cycles. The HEHC cycle can be implemented in a variety of ways; LiquidPiston is developing an implementation that uses a separate rotary compressor, two...

MIT researchers have been developing a spark-ignition (SI) automobile engine that can, under the appropriate driving conditions, move into a spark-free Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI) operating mode that is more fuel-efficient than the SI mode. The mode-switching capability could appear in production models within a few years, improving fuel economy by several miles per gallon in millions of new cars each year. Members of the MIT team presented the latest results from the project in two papers at the Japan Society of Automotive Engineers (JSAE)/Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) 2007 International Fuel and Lubricants Meeting this week. HCCI engines...