SwRI Launches Heavy-Duty Gasoline Engine Consortium

SAN ANTONIO--Jan. 5, 2004--Southwest Research Institute(R) (SwRI) will launch a cooperative research program early this year to develop a high-efficiency, durable gasoline engine. The four-year effort will seek to improve gasoline engine technology for heavy-duty applications.

The new consortium, known as HEDGE (High-Efficiency, Durable Gasoline Engine), will develop new technologies for the gasoline engine market. It is possible that the Environmental Protection Agency post-2010 emission goals will severely restrict the efficiency and cost advantages currently enjoyed by today's diesel engine. With improved combustion technology, the gasoline engine will be able to better compete in the heavy-duty market.

The multiyear program will focus on one main integration engine and will work on three to four projects aimed at developing enabling technology for the engine. The projects will focus on development of knock-resistant combustion chambers, high-energy ignition approaches, and strategies for high brake mean effective pressure (BMEP) operation. Engine control will be a key element in the development of an aggressive knock mitigation strategy.

Dr. Thomas W. Ryan III, program manager and an Institute engineer in the SwRI Engine, Emissions and Vehicle Research Division, explained that participants select the consortium work from a number of projects. Institute engineers and scientists recommend areas of interest based on SwRI's extensive automotive-related experience and on work initiated in the Institute's internal research program.

"The HEDGE program will culminate in the merging of all necessary technologies to demonstrate cost, efficiency and durability in an integration or demonstration engine," Ryan said. "Using the technology developed in this program, consortium members will get an early start on this heavy-duty engine technology."

The advantage of consortium membership is that the impact of the yearly contribution is multiplied by the number of participants, providing substantially more pre-competitive research than would be possible by funding from a single member. In addition, SwRI's internal research programs involving control algorithms and modified ignition combustion concepts will be shared with consortium members. These efforts often form the basis for focused research under the consortium.

SwRI has introduced the program to a range of companies in Europe, Asia and the United States, including light and heavy-duty engine manufacturers, component suppliers, and oil and fuel companies. "This program can serve both gasoline and diesel manufacturers, enabling each to 'hedge' their bets on the direction the heavy-duty engine will take in the post-2010 era," Ryan noted.

As an independent R&D laboratory, SwRI has extensive experience in managing consortia. The fourth of a series of clean-diesel consortia was initiated in late 2003. In the Clean Diesel IV consortium, SwRI will be conducting research in low-emission diesel engines and in ultra-clean homogeneous charge, compression ignition technology.

SwRI is an independent, nonprofit, applied research and development organization based in San Antonio, Texas, with more than 2,800 employees and an annual research volume of almost $355 million.