Air-Hybrid Japan Debut

Scuderi are showing the Scuderi Engine to the Japanese automotive industry this week at the Nagoya Eco Clean Car Fair, an exhibition run by the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO), a government-related organisation that works to promote mutual trade and investment between Japan and the rest of the world.

The Scuderi Engine is described as a split cycle design dividing the four strokes on the combustion process over at the head combination of cylinders. One ease and intake and compression cylinder, the other is a power and exhaust cylinder.

The ignition process is fired after top dead centre giving a clean burn combustion in one cylinder and producing compressed air from the other.

The manufacturers claim fuel efficiency improvements of up to 50% with an 8% reduction in nitrogen oxides and improved power and torque, from an engine needing minimal manufacturing and retooling using similar common components to conventional engines.

At the heart of the engine is a gas passage between the two cylinders controlled by valves. Just after top dead centre has been reached the combustible gas is transferred from the compression to the combustion cylinder before being fired.

The engine concept is said to be similar to the old-fashioned two stroke engine without the emissions problems associated with two strokes.

This Scuderi design is, like many of its ilk, one of those great ideas, which may or may not get up. The issue is not whether it works or whether it can produce some real economic and environmental goals.

Engine development is a massive capital intensive task, just ask Daimler how much they spent on developing the new Detroit Diesel engine range. The problem for Scuderi is getting hold of the right sort of investment funds to take this engine from a good idea to something actually in the metal coming down a production line.

For more information and a full explanation of this new technology, check out the Green Car Congress blog.