Scuderi Engine

Carmelo Scuderi is dead and gone, but his dream of a more efficient internal combustion engine lives on, reports Neal E. Boudette in the Wall Street Journal (4/21/09). Carmelo first introduced his innovative engine to his wife, kids and grandkids in 2001. His design involves pairing cylinders, so that one handles intake and compression while the other manages combustion and exhaust. The result is an engine that converts "about 40 percent of the energy in gasoline into mechanical energy," versus about 30 percent in a conventional engine.

Sadly, Carmelo died of a heart attack in 2002, but his children are not only carrying on his work, but also improving upon it. They "now envision adding a tank to store highly compressed air that can be fed into the combustion cylinder," which, when turbocharged, "could increase a vehicle’s fuel economy by perhaps 50 percent." Sivam Sabesan of Frost & Sullivan, an engine expert, sees "no obvious flaws that suggest the engine won’t work." Carmakers including Peugeot Citroen, Honda, Daimler and Fiat are said to be interested in the Scuderi engine, which exists in prototype but still needs about another two years of testing.

It’s still unknown "how the design will perform at different speeds, and whether it will be durable. Problems could arise because of the difference in temperatures between the paired cylinders, with the combustion cylinder heating up much more than the compression one." But if it works, the Scuderi engine could be more commercial than electric or hydrogen fuel cells since it could be built in existing factories. It would also be the first major re-design of the gasoline engine in 100 years.