| High Schoolers Reduce 2-Stroke Emissions by 40%! |
| Written by Jozef Winter | ||
| Thursday, 15 May 2008 | ||
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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?
Comments
(9)
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written by Advent , May 15, 2008
EcoGeeking is not slacking
written by Andrew Moore , May 16, 2008
As someone who reads this site every day for updates and for inspiration for their own efforts to green their life, I would hardly say that you are slacking! I'd rather you kept the site you going in order to keep us out here well motivated to get it done at home and at our businesses.
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written by EV , May 16, 2008
Here is some info on a 2-stroke that is over 50% efficient. It's made for ships and has been around for years.
http://people.bath.ac.uk/ccsshb/12cyl/
Retrofit?
written by Jordan Lyons , May 16, 2008
So is this a solution for existing, inefficient two-stroke engines that can be reproduced on a large scale?
Yes, retrofit, and possible future appli
written by Jozef , May 16, 2008
Jordan... yup!
retrofit
written by Jesper Rasmussen , May 16, 2008
We recognise the fact that newer two-stroke engines are much improved with both advanced valves and fuel injection, but this wont help much in the much polluted cities of Asia. Our product is directly aimed as a cheap retrofit for the person riding a two-stroke because of low price. The person that has the money to buy a new fuel-injection two-stroke, wont contribute much to the collective emissions from two-strokes anyway.
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
Take a look at the Aprilia SR-50. One of the fastest stock 2-stroke 50cc scooters on the market and it emits literally no emission. It's fuel injected, oil injected, liquid cooled, 3000 dollars of 2 stroke genius. Kudos to these guys though.
Two stroke technology
written by Randall Sweeney , May 18, 2008
Two stroke diesel engines are the future of personal motor transport.
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.
Two strock for the shps
written by mki , May 18, 2008
The biggest problem with the ships 2 stroke engine is the oil that they burn.
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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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.