Ethanol Optimized Engine
Growth Energy has joined leading automotive solutions group, Ricardo, to build an Ethanol Boost Direct Injection (EBDI) engine that is flex-fuel optimized. The engine takes advantage of ethanol’s high octane and latent heat of vaporization to provide a low production cost solution and comparable fuel economy.
Two demonstrator vehicles are to be produced incorporating Ricardo’s EBDI engine technology, showing that even for larger vehicles, extreme optimization of ethanol combustion can enable engine downsizing of the order of 50 percent and still deliver substantial fuel economy and CO2 emission improvements from a cost-effective, high performance, inherently low emission powertrain. Based on test work already carried out, Ricardo estimates that a fuel economy improvement of up to 30 percent is possible with no loss of power or performance, using a downsized EBDI engine in place of currently available gasoline powertrain technology.
See photos of the Ricardo / Growth Energy EBDI engine at the Washington Auto Show on our Flickr page.
