Ricardo's new petrol engine technology

At this week's Directions in Engine-Efficiency and Emissions Research (DEER) conference hosted by the US Department of Energy in Dearborn, Michigan, Ricardo VP John Pinson said the company is working on spark-ignited engines with performance, economy and durability capabilities to match diesel for all manner of applications, even in agriculture and construction. With an added clincher: simpler design and a resultant lower cost.

To show what he was talking about, Ricardo brought along a 3.2-litre V6 ethanol-boosted direct injection (EBDI) prototype. It runs on 100 per cent petrol, 100 per cent ethanol or anything in between.

Rod Beazley, VP of the company's spark ignited engines division, told audiences the engine has "over-achieved its low speed torque performance goals on both ethanol and gasoline. This represents an archetypal change when considering the low speed torque output of the gasoline engine compared to the diesel engine -- in actual fact the gasoline engine far out-performs the diesel in terms of specific torque performance."

Beazley claimed Ricardo could reduce displacement by 25-50 per cent and still deliver torque and fuel economy figures competitive with direct-injection diesels. He added that diesel and gasoline engines are converging in terms of base engine architecture.

But spark engines have a major potential cost advantage in aftertreatment and fuel systems, hailing from the sparker's use of common catalytic aftertreatments rather than costlier and more complex particulate filters and selective catalytic reduction (SCR) systems diesels need to meet increasingly stringent emissions requirements worldwide.

Ricardo is convinced the practical benefits are many at design, manufacture and operator-cost levels. Meaning the biggest problem facing EBDI technology is getting those stakeholders out of the comfort zone they're in with diesel, Pinson said. "But for many applications, the practical benefits for engineers and operators will be hard to ignore."

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