Friday, February 13, 2009

Plans to produce flex-fuel ethanol engine with better fuel economy

The British firm Ricardo expects to roll out a new engine design in 3-5 years that would run more efficiently on ethanol. They expect it to have only a 15% drop in fuel economy on ethanol, much better than the 30% drop experienced in most models today. This will make ethanol, such as E85, more cost-competitive and more attractive to consumers. The use of such engines in plug-in electric hybrids would create an attractive package in terms of fuel efficiency, low emmissions, and low cost of operation.
Ethanol stalled, but experts say it remains viable fuel option - Rebranding Michigan - Michigan Business Review – MLive.com: "It aims to leverage the higher octane and higher heat of vaporization elements of ethanol to increase fuel economy. It integrates direct injection technology, variable valve timing, exhaust gas recirculation and optimized ignition technology."

1 comment:

Cummins Engine Parts said...

The environment as we know of it today is not the purest thing. Especially, with motor car companies being in mass productions for the past oh my sooo many years and so many more years to come. The environment of the world as we know it hasn't really been performing at it's peak recently. And do we know why? Well of course, I mean we should know why, we basically are the ones to blame. Not specifying anyone in particular but I'm pretty sure us humans have contributed to the most part. But, as much damage as we've done, shouldn't we begin to think on how we can either reverse the effect or at the least minimize the pollution??