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This is the third in our series of projects from ISEF that we will be covering. Many more to come. Thanks to Intel for flying me out and putting me up so I could cover the conference.
Denmark may not be a big country, with only 5.6 million inhabitants, but there are more than 160,000 mopeds there, not to mention lawnmowers, chainsaws, and even cargo ships that transport goods. Each of these have a common thread: they all run on two-stroke engines. Michael Madsen and Jesper Rasmussen, both riders of mopeds, found out one day how utterly inefficient and polluting they could be, even for their size. The reason is that with two-stroke engines, no matter the size, when fuel is injected into the cylinder, part of it is allowed to escape through the exaust manifold (see white spheres in picture).
This means that not only are you sending a large portion of your fuel in the exhaust without burning it (30-40% on average in chainsaws), these hydrocarbons are released into the atmosphere as reactive organic gases, which cause a slew of health problems. Madsen and Rasmussen decided to design a system that would eliminate these problems and make the engine more efficient. What they’ve done is created a unique design in their exhaust system that pushes the overflowing hydrocarbons, along with a little of the exhaust, back into the cylinder by way of a shockwave traveling at 500m/s.
This allows the fuel to be completely burned, and has resulted in a fuel efficiency improvement of 17.7%, just for their mopeds. Carbon monoxide has been decreased by 10% and hydrocarbon emissions have been reduced by 36.7%. The system is even more efficient in hot, dry climates, so would work well in areas like California, many countries in Asia, and the middle east. Heavy cargo ships, carrying some of the most polluting engines in the world, would greatly benefit from this technology, and the team has patented their system and hopes to bring this to market in the future.
Frankly, it makes us at EcoGeek feel like we're slacking. If this is what high school students are doing, shouldn't we be doing a bit more than just blogging?
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written by Andrew Moore, May 16, 2008
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written by EV, May 16, 2008
http://people.bath.ac.uk/ccsshb/12cyl/
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written by Jordan Lyons, May 16, 2008
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written by Jesper Rasmussen, May 17, 2008
as a side notice our stay here in the U.S. has been hugely rewarding as we won a second prize in the team category at the Intel international science and engineering fair, and also 2 VERY attractive special awards.
Regards, Jesper Rasmussen, Denmark.
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written by Andy, May 17, 2008
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written by Randall Sweeney, May 18, 2008
Cheap and powerful two stroke diesel engines can be designed to run on sump oil harvested from the existing automobile fleet. This is an ideal technology for developing countries.
Owners of gasoline powered cars could offset their running costs by selling their used engine oil as fuel for the two stroke diesel fleet.
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written by mki, May 18, 2008
I sow somewhere a article that describe technology that convert bunker oil to light fraction. I wonder if such fuel precondition can be build in to ship engine. The question is what the cost.
The better solution for Denmark is to use electric mopeds and lawnmowers.
If the pollution and efficiency are the goal we have to go different direction. Moder steam engine instead of internal combustion engine.
The steam engine from Cyclone Technology have 36% efficiency, with driving characteristic similar to electric motor (very high torque, not transmission necessary, no clutch needed , no idle cycle in city cycle – on /off only). The engine is extremely quiet and have very low emissions (at list 10 time lower then ICE).
The last thing what I read is some lawnmowers company buy the license to use one of the steam engine design.
As for the students that get the price for the design: grate job!!! At this age you start think like engineers, Grate future in front of them. I wonder if your invention can be sale as kit to modify existing mopeds. In such case it have a lot of snce.
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written by raymond, October 30, 2008
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written by Reginald Alaneme, January 19, 2009
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written by -hp, April 14, 2009
I mean they are talking about an expansion chamber that can be found in small gasoline 2 strokes like motocross bikes? Except in motocross use they act as a kind of turbocharger that draws the fuel-air mixture from the exhaust cylinder and then pushes it back to the cylinder just before the exhaust port closes.
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written by justin, May 12, 2009
Especially the retrofit kit.
Hope to link up from there.
Many Thanks!
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written by Otzy, June 06, 2009
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written by Grog, August 03, 2009
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written by bill, August 06, 2009
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Modern 2 strokes have both exhaust valves and direct injection. Meaning they do in fact burn their fuel almost completely. There are actually some rather impressive advances going on in that department. For instance, Evinrude was the first company to meet the EPA's 3 star emissions requirements for outboard motors, and they did it with 2 strokes.
Large ships mostly emit crap because they burn crap. The fuel they use is also the stuff used to make plastic. It's almost impossible to cleanly burn.
These kids did a great job improving on older 2 strokes. But it doesn't really apply to newer engines.