Experimental Delphi engine could boost fuel economy by half
By Design Engineering Staff
General Automotive Delphi designAutomaker supplier successfully fires up “diesel-like” gasoline-burning test engine that may rival hybrid efficiency at lower cost.
MIT Technology Review reports that automaker supplier, Delphi, is working on a gasoline-burning car engine that improves upon traditional internal combustion efficiency by 50 percent.
The company’s single-cylinder test engine combines the high-efficiency of diesel with the relatively low emissions of gasoline. The result is an engine with efficiency could rival that of hybrid powertrains.
According to the article, the company’s prototype overcomes the challenges previously associated with applying diesel’s compression ignition with gasoline:
Delphi’s approach, which is called gasoline-direct-injection compression ignition, aims to overcome the problem by combining a collection of engine-operating strategies that make use of advanced fuel injection and air intake and exhaust controls, many of which are available on advanced engines today.
For more, check out Technology Review’s website or dig into the details in Delphi’s research paper on its GDCI test engine.
www.delphi.com
