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Future Vehicles Will All Be Electric, Right? Well, Not So Fast.

By Rain Noe - February 23, 2011

in Tech

When describing something that is gaining momentum, we still use the expression "gaining steam," a throwback to the era of steam power. And if it seems ridiculous to refer to a technology that old, consider that we're still driving around in cars using internal combustion engines, which first started to "gain steam" over 100 years ago.

Most people believe the future of automobiles is in battery-powered electric engines, which would influence the design of the vehicles themselves; the concept of having small separate engines for each wheel, in particular, opens up some exciting possibilities for transportation designers. But there's still a chance things won't go that way, as there are still companies tinkering around with the internal combustion engine and actually making breakthroughs.

Most recently, two companies called Navistar and EcoMotors are collaborating to commercialize the latter's OPOC motor technology. OPOC stands for Opposing Piston/Opposing Cylinder, and in a nutshell the design uses two pistons crammed into one cylinder. Mated with EcoMotors' Electrically Controlled Clutch, this is a bit of a gamechanger in internal combustion.

Basically, internal combustion engines in and of themselves are not bad, just inefficient. They produce a fair amount of stinky and ecologically-unfriendly waste compared to the amount of motion they generate. EcoMotors' variant of the engine offers a heckuva lot more bang for the buck, so to speak, as their engine design is much smaller, uses less materials, and is more efficient. It can also be made to run on a variety of fuels, and the aforementioned clutch design can shut down cylinders not in use.

See the vid below for more details.

Interestingly enough, the concept of an OPOC engine was first advanced when internal combustion was still in its infancy, way back in 1907; it never caught on, for reasons far too complicated to go into here. But engine geeks interested in the tech can click here to check out fourteen other examples of OPOC engines devised over the years.

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powers

13 years ago

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Thank You! Finally a little dose of reality. Sooner or later we are going to realize that the electric vehicle idea is not as efficient as we all thought. Not to mention hybrids - generating electricity here, storing it in terribly wasteful batteries, using it over there. If we think we've got an energy crisis wait till all our cars are running on electricity! Porsche was an electrician before he was an auto maker and his first car was electric. He wouldn't have abandoned it if it was a good idea. And how is most of our electricity generated anyway? Oh, that's right, Steam. Go check out www.cyclonepower.com. Help make the world a better place.
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The nontoxic choice advocate

13 years ago

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It is true that internal combustion engines of today are still using designs that are a century old.
Not because there are no innovations but because manufacturers are unfriendly towards outside innovators. Take the case of the 2-stroke engine for instance-a design that delivers twice as much power impulses as its 4-stroke engines of equal capacity. But because of pollution problem, the 2-stroke engines never gained steam except in motorcycles.
Or how about the rotary engine-another engine design that delivers great power but has vibration/balance and pollution problems.
And there are more awesome designs by private inventors who do not have the resources to exploit the potentials of their inventions.
If someone solves the problems in these designs-and some has, [ask me how I know], and approaches the auto companies, what he would be met with, is at best, an unfriendly reception. Trust me, I know.
Check out their websites and witness the tone towards independent inventors.
It is a shame, though, because more powerful engines mean less material consumption, less toxic emissions per unit of power output, and better health of the earth and its inhabitants
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Robert

13 years ago

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â‹ Much of the inefficiency of the typical internal combustion engine is due to heat removal for engine cooling. The diversion of this heat means it cannot contribute to power or efficiency. Regarding steam engines, some six-stroke engines remove this heat, normally be wasted at the radiator, by operating as a steam engine for the last two strokes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crower_six_stroke

â‹ Two strokes continue to have alot to offer. Wartsila for instance produces two-stroke ship engines. The RTA96-C achieves over 50% thermal efficiency which is quite astounding - and it is bigger than my apartment.

â‹ Regarding the dirtiness of the ICE, a profound answer is methanol. Liquid-fuel ICE engines are what power our world. The fuel format has amazing energy density, is fairly safe, and we know how to use it well. Hydrogen by contrast offers amazingly difficult issues to overcome in order to access the beautiful combustion it promises.

â‹ Conventional liquid fuels are largely an effective way to package hydrogen for combustion. Nobel winner George Olah advocates the use of methanol as a practical realization of the hydrogen economy. It is also possible to have carbon-neutral methanol if the greenhouse gas CO2 is harvested to produce the methanol. His work relates to the efficient conversion of natural gas into methanol (energy independence for the US) and to fixing CO2 out of the air to produce methanol by the addition of hydrogen. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methanol_economy

â‹ For interesting motors, Pereaves, one of the X-prize winners, has a superball-motor they have been working on. http://kugelmotor.peraves.ch/index_en.htm
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Pierce Nichols

13 years ago

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Opposed-piston engines have not been particularly uncommon -- large 2-stroke diesels have been built in opposed piston configurations at various times. It simplifies the valving and improves performance.
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