Microsoft Chairman and Co-Founder Bill Gates along with Sun Microsystems co-founder Vinod Khosla, has invested £23.5 million into a company by the name EcoMotors. The investment by the two IT honchos is to further the development of EcoMotors Opposed-Piston Opposed-Cylinder (OPOC) two-stroke engine.
Bill Gates, Microsoft Chairman and Co-Founder -
EcoMotors has developed a promising technology that could help reduce levels of greenhouse gas emissions in a low-cost, globally relevant way
The OPOC two-stroke engine developed by EcoMotors possesses two-cylinders in an opposed configuration with a crankshaft in between the cylinders. Each cylinder has two pistons which move in opposite directions to each other. This design configuration completely eliminates engine components such as the cylinder head and the valvetrain, thereby resulting in an engine which is compact, lightweight, simple and efficient.
The main advantages of the OPOC engine are:
1. Lighter, more efficient and less polluting when compared with a conventional engine.
2. The OPOC engine produces 1 hp per pound of engine weight.
3. 50 % fewer moving parts when compared with a conventional engine.
4. Low Noise, Vibration and Harshness (NVH).
5. Runs as a fully balanced 4-stroke, 4-cylinder engine.
The OPOC engine can also be connected in multiple modules with the help of an electronically controlled clutch, in order to obtain a range of different power outputs. The OPOC engine can also function as a variable displacement engine, thereby offering good fuel economy, optimised performance and reduced emissions.
EcoMotors is currently developing two versions of its OPOC engine namely the EM65 and the larger, more powerful EM100. Both the engines can be used in single or multiple module configurations depending on the requirement.
EcoMotors will be using its OPOC engine in a car which it is currently developing and which will be capable of delivering a fuel economy figure of 100 mpg. The company is also reportedly working on the design of a motorcycle using the same engine.
It seems as if the OPOC engine developed by EcoMotors has the ability to resurrect the dying breed of two-stroke engines and bring them back to life with a bang and prove to the world that two-stoke engines while being powerful can also be fuel efficient and low emitting.
Technical Specifications of the EM100 OPOC Engine
Cylinder bore: 100 mm
Dry weight: 296 lb.
Dimensions (LxWxH): 22.8 x 41.3 x 18.5 (Inches)
Power: 325 bhp @ 3,500 rpm
Torque: 664 lb.-ft @ 2,100 rpm
Power Density: 1.1 hp per lb.
Principal Components of the OPOC Engine Module
Source – Visor Down
Posted by Sachet Parkash on July 19, 2010. Read More on Technology · 3 Comments
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None of the 4 pistons of the OPOC engine can be similar to another.
There are 2 conventional pistons (the inner) and 2 crosshead pistons (the outer)
The lubrication issues of the similar engines of the prior-art prove that the inner pistons (the conventional) have the problem with the lubrication.
And of the 2 inner pistons, that of the exhaust (red crown in the animation) is the most problematic.
This is because only this piston thrushes (touches and pushes on) on the hot exhaust ports, suffering all this hell of high temperatures (let alone the oil film between piston and exhaust-port-area).
The conditions for the other exhaust piston (the external red of the animation) are much more healthy for the piston and its oil-film.
It is because this crosshead piston does not have to touch and push against the exhaust ports, where the survival of any oil film is simply impossible.
If OPOC could use the two external pistons as exhaust pistons this lubrication problem would be overcome. OPOC cannot because its external scavenging system (turbine-compressor) does not allow some other piston timing.
On the contrary the other exhaust piston (the external, the crosshead one) not only can keep cooler and healthy but also sustain its oil film untouched and unburned by the high temperature, overheated, exhaust gas ports.
Furthermore this piston has the chance to avoid even for its piston- rings to touch the exhaust-ports: Because of the piston thrusting away from the exhaust-port area (at the area where the piston-pin is) the cylinder bore around the exhaust port area can be as much wider as to leave the piston rings free when the piston crosses the exhaust ports, resulting in a longer life for the rings and less friction.
An engine made of only such pistons is the OPRE engine presented at http://www.pattakon.com/pattakonOPRE.htm wherein you can see videos of the working prototypes running on Diesel fuel.
As compared to the OPOC engine, the OPRE is true compact, is light, is simple, is perfectly balanced, integrades the scavenging pump, provides additional time for the combustion etc. Just take a look.
The PatOP engine, at http://www.pattakon.com/pattakonPatOP.htm is the single crankshaft version of the OPRE engine.
With a basic module having one only cylinder and two only pistons, the PatOP is better balanced than the OPOC engine of EcoMotors and provides some 20% additional time for the efficient injection and combustion of the fuel (at high revs the additional time enables higher peak power, at medium-low revs the additional time enables better efficiency and lower emissions).
The PatOP engine has constantly zero total force on the main bearings of the crankshaft (the connecting rods of the two opposed pistons remain constantly parallel, have normal size and are heavily loaded only in tension, i.e. they are pulling-rods).
The PatOP engine intergrades a “volumetric”, piston-type scavenging-pump that enables a flat torque curve in a wide rev range.
The PatOP engine takes the thrust loads away from the hot cylinder walls and away from the ports, enabling far lower lubricant consumption and better lubrication, just like the giant cross-head Sulzer engines; because the PatOP is a cross-head engine, yet a short one (for 80mm bore and 64+64=128mm stroke, the PatOP is only 500mm long).
Quote from the internet:
“The Fiat 500 TwinAir is equipped with a two-cylinder turbo 85 HP (900 cc) engine which has the lowest CO2 emission levels for a petrol engine (up to 95 g/km) without compromising performance and driving pleasure.”
The single-cylinder PatOP engine has one combustion per crank rotation, the Fiat 500 TwinAir has also one combustion per crank rotation.
In order to counterbalance the 1st order inertia forces, the Fiat 500 TwinAir engine adds a 1st order balance shaft, cost and friction (yet the inertia forces of 2nd order stay unbalanced).
The single cylinder PatOP needs no balance shaft, yet all inertia forces are balanced (its balancing quality is better than any four in line with two 2nd order balance shafts).
The Fiat 500 TwinAir engine is regarded as the ideal engine for small – medium size cars. The weight and the cost of the PatOP engine are by far lower than those of the TwinAir.
How much expense in making air engine??