The project will use Ricardo’s EBDI flex fuel engine, developed from a production V6 gasoline engine, to repower two GMC Sierra 3500 HD pickup trucks, each with a curb weight of 6000lbs.

The Ricardo EBDI ethanol engine has 30 percent higher fuel economy.

In Washington, Ricardo Systems and Growth Energy announced that they will collaborate to demonstrate fuel economy improvement of up to 30 percent, using ethanol as a replacement for fossil fuels, with no loss of power or performance.

Under the partnership, 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.

“It’s the EBDI engine that was announced last year,” confirms Ricado spokesman Jim Cain. “It’s now fully engineered and ready for road tests. We’re announcing preliminary performance figures and a demo program with Growth Energy.”

It’s been repeated in the popular press ad nauseum that ethanol contains fewer BTUs than gasoline. However, ethanol has a secret weapon — far higher octane — meaning it can be subjected to far higher compression in engines without experiencing premature detonation — the explosive “knocking” that leads to engine damage. Higher compression, higher engine efficiency.

“People are likely to be amazed with the performance and fuel economy that can be delivered from a comparatively small displacement engine running on a renewable fuel such as ethanol,” says Rod Beazley, director of the Ricardo Inc Spark Ignited Engines Product Group.

“In the project we are announcing today with Growth Energy, we will be substituting a 3.2-liter V6 engine in a 1 ton pickup truck vehicle usually powered by a 6.0l V8 gasoline or a 6.6l diesel engine. The reason we are doing this is that while the engine test results speak for themselves, there is no substitute for experiencing in a vehicle the benefits of uncompromised performance and extremely high fuel economy that can be achieved using a renewable fuel like ethanol in an optimal manner. Moreover by using a truly flex-optimized engine such as EBDI, the best possible performance and fuel efficiency can be delivered from whichever gasoline-ethanol mix is selected by the driver when next stopping for fuel.”

The project will use Ricardo’s EBDI flex fuel engine, developed from a production V6 gasoline engine, to repower two GMC Sierra 3500 HD pickup trucks, each with a curb weight of 6000lbs. Ricardo and Growth Energy have the objective of demonstrating through this project:

• The market-readiness Ricardo’s EBDI technology, which optimizes flex-fuel vehicles to burn ethanol with consumer value, horsepower and fuel economy that is comparable to gasoline.
• Domestic ethanol’s potential, as a high-octane, low-carbon and renewable fuel, to lessen American dependence on gasoline refined from carbon-heavy oil imported from overseas at growing risk to US economic and national security.

Following completion of the ten month project, the demonstrator vehicles will be available for a range of demonstration, test and evaluation exercises to be organized by Growth Energy and Ricardo.

The Digest has been reporting for some time on the difficulties that advanced engine technologies have faced in financing breakthroughs over the past several years, excepting the substantial attention paid to electric sports cars.

Maurice Gunderson, a senior partner at CMEA Ventures and a co-founder of Nth power, comments, “Among all the things that have gone right since Dr. Chu took over at the Department of Energy, I wish there had been less emphasis in alternative vehicle development on choosing technology winners and losers. It would have been better to set a low carbon goal and let the market determine whether the most efficient way is through, for example, superior batteries or redevelopment of the engine. The internal combustion engine is something that could still be substantially improved.”

Among technologies that have struggled to get traction: AHL-Tech’s hybrid ethanol-electric rail engine technology, and the Bobcat ethanol injection system developed by Ford.

Ricardo’s EBDI engine technology solves many of the shortcomings of current generation flex-fuel engines, which are typically only optimized for gasoline operation and do not make full use of the properties of ethanol. Unlike existing flex-fuel technologies EBDI takes full advantage of ethanol’s properties of high octane and latent heat of vaporization to deliver near-diesel levels of engine efficiency at substantially reduced cost.

The EBDI project represents a technical collaboration with Behr, Bosch, Delphi, Federal Mogul, GW Castings and Honeywell, to further the advancement and commercialization of this highly promising technology.