[Cartoday]
Lotus and Jaguar have teamed up to develop a unique engine system capable of operating on either alcohols or petrol.
Cleverly codenamed Omnivore (an organism the eats both plant and animal matter) this engine project will not involve funneling ferns and live rodents into the tank, but is compatible with methanol, ethanol and petrol. Several techniques will be used to maximize performance and compatibility with the differing fuel types, including direct injection.
The direct injection module, which facilitates computer control of the vital fuel-air ratios, an especially important factor in flexfuel cars, is augmented with a two-stroke cycle.
Usually the preserve of sub-1,0-litre engines or large diesels such as marine engines, the two-stroke cycle develops more power by combining the intake/compression and and power/exhaust strokes, thereby dispensing with the otherwise wasteful separate intake and exhaust cycles.
This feature will allow the engine to extract as much power as possible from fuels such as methanol and ethanol which, as we know, already combust more efficiently than petrol.
“Alcohols possess superior combustion characteristics to gasoline, which allow greater optimization,” said Mike Kimberley, Group Lotus CEO. “Taking full advantage of the benefits of sustainable bio-alcohols will ensure a greater percentage of vehicle miles will be traveled using renewable fuels.”
Although Lotus has a good deal of experience in the realm of biofueled engine technology (its most recent development being the trifuel Exige 270E) Jaguar is somewhat new to the scene.
But with Tata’s backing behind it, Jaguar’s role as a ‘consulting partner’ on the project is bound to make it privy to technological information that it could adapt to its own models in future – a prudent move, considering that the bulk of its products sport V6 or V8 engines, which could benefit from the efficiency of a flexfuel set up.
Although the key issue on the project at present is bettering the performance outputs offered by conventional petrol engines, the marginally less harmful emissions from methanol and ethanol-burning powerplants will also help this technology gain favour with an environmentally-minded public.