Here is a link to a page describing the worlds most efficient ICE:

http://www.bath.ac.uk/~ccsshb/12cyl/index.html

Here are some specs of the engine:

Thermal efficiency at maximum economy: > 50%
(by comparison, the ICE in the Prius II runs at 37% thermal efficiency at maximum engine economy, most regular cars run more typically - under most conditions - around 20-30% T.E.)


Maximum Power at 102 rpm: 108,920 hp
Maximum torque at 102 rpm: 5,608,312 lb/ft
(those are figures for the 14 cylinder version)
Displacement: 25,480 liters or 1,556,002 cubic inches

What kind of engine is it?
A turbocharged, two stroke (!) ship propulsion diesel engine.

Hi MGBGT:

___I tried driving one of those to work one day and when I hit the throttles, all I heard was a windy whooshing sound? I guess it doesn’t do that well out of the water

___Have to admit, > 50% TE is something the car manufacturers will be lucky to see in the labs let alone in the real world. I have read that VW has hit 45% with some of their TDI’s in the lab and who knows what kind of TE the new MB 8’s are achieving while using the latest piezo ceramic injectors, 22,000 psi common rails, Variable nozzle turbo’s with some kind of high tech intake manifolds, etc … 314 HP, 538 Ft.-Lb’s and 25 mpg US combined if I am not mistaken. I bet those monsters are pushing upwards of 40 + % TE on a bhp basis?

___Good Luck

___Wayne R. Gerdes
___Waynegerdes@earthlink.net

Unfortunately with the way an ICE works the bigger it is the more efficient it can be, so in the long run using a small ICE will pollute more and waste more energy than a huge ICE, like the boat and train engines. Sadly these engines have very little (if any) pollution control, such as the use of 2 stroke (intake and exhaust is one stroke so a lot of the fuel going in comes out with the exhaust) so in reality they probably pollute and waste just as much as the small ICEs.

But then again, that's the whole idea behind the hybrids, to be able to use the inefficient ICE less and use the WAY more efficient electric motor instead.

I'm still looking forward to the Air Cars and their hybrid gas-air-electric model with the ECE engine, I think that's gonna blow the competition out of the water.

2001 Prius Photos       2005 Prius Photos
1992 Mitsubishi Delica Diesel-WVO Hybrid Photos

compressed air is usually generated by a ICE

and yes the larger engines usually have little to no pollution controls

Money is not evil. Good people do good things with money and bad people do bad things with money. Which will you be???

The ultimate Altima = 2.5L V6 twin turbo diesel(150hp/250tq) with 60 hp HEV and LARGE battery.


Great style & looks with power and great MPG

I live in Galveston, TX (yes, that developed sandbank in the Gulf of Mexico),
and there are lots of cruise ships docking in the Port of Galveston, up to 10 per week.
It always gets me very irritated to watch these giant ships spew out 'tons and tons' (not literally) of black smoke out of their stacks. A singel one of these ships probably pollutes as much as hunderds if not thousands of cars.
One of them in particular is irritating: on the top deck they have mounted a gigantic television screen, that I assume is used to show movies (and probably commercials) to passengers lounging on the top deck. This silly technology probably cost far more than the installation of pollution control equipment on the ship, yet these vessels continue to belch megatons of pollutants, soot, and who knows what...
I really wish the cruise ship companies would get their act together!

I think you mean literally tons, because they do spew thousands of gallons of burned diesel fuel, and that's tons of carbon and other sh|t.

There has been some concern over the cruise ships pollution, in fact there's been a study, and apparently where these ships come in, within the next 2-3 years they will out-pollute cars! Some places have passed laws that force the ships to plug in when they are in the port and NOT run their engines. Our ports have passed laws that make them add a fuel additive that makes the burn more complete and gives the ships better fuel economy, but personally I think we should mandate the plugging in of the ships as well, since we have clean hydro-electric power here.

Compressed air is normally made with an electric motor, but what powers the electric motor is in most cases some kind of hydrocarbon combustion driven generating plant. This moves pollution outside of the city, but does not prevent it entirely. What they are working on are 2 alternative systems that use wind power and river power to generate compressed air that will not generate any pollution or require any existing energy infrastructure. So, while compressed air vehicles would not instantly solve pollution problems, it gives us much more opportunity to innovate, as with EV's. The Air Cars are hybrids (electric-air) and they can be plugged in at home to refill the air tanks (3-4 hours), or filled at a gas station in 2-3 minutes with pre-compressed air.

2001 Prius Photos       2005 Prius Photos
1992 Mitsubishi Delica Diesel-WVO Hybrid Photos

Addition of Miller-cycle style late valve closing (as used by the Prius to bump up the efficiency of the gas engine a lot) should take small diesel engines into the region approaching 60% efficient.

Why? Because in terms of thermal efficiency, expansion ratio is everything. The engine in the Prius uses the late closing valve trick (called Miller cycle) to make a 10:1 compression engine effectively run at 13:1 expansion.

For a diesel, therefore, it shouldn't be too hard to turn the existing 20:1 expansion (which is of course the same as the compression ratio because they make do with old-school valve trains) to nearer 30:1 with adjustable valve closing. Waaaayy more energy could then be extracted from the fuel before it's emitted as exhaust gases.

http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/ecotech/ecot.htm