The consortium is engaging in a three year, $US2.5 million ($A3.3 million) project to develop Homogenous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI) for commercial use, a technology that offers significant benefits over conventional fuel-injection spark-ignition (FISI) engine designs.
Similar to FISI engines, HCCI designs mix fuel with air but with a higher proportion of air. Rather than igniting the mix with a spark plug, a piston compresses the mixture until rising temperature causes it to spontaneously ignite at a lower temperature.
The combination of high air to fuel ratio and low ignition temperature almost completely eliminates emissions of nitrous oxide and particulates as well as reducing throttling loss, increasing fuel efficiency by up to 20%.
HCCI is yet to move from the lab to car engines primarily due to the requirement of advanced sensors, control systems and actuators to maintain the fine balance of fuel mixture and regulate temperature and pressure.
The GM team hopes its collaboration with Bosch and Stanford will allow them to make the transition from theory to commercial application and usher in a new era of cleaner, low-emission vehicle engines.
"It is GM's goal to develop and demonstrate the viability of HCCI – a clean, efficient combustion process – within the next few years," said Gary Smyth, director of GM's Powertrain Systems Research Lab.
EnvironmentalManagementNews.net
