Lotus is joining forces with Queen’s University Belfast and Jaguar to develop Omnivore, a revolutionary new multi-fuel combustion engine with significantly enhanced thermal efficiency when running on any combination of alcohols and gasoline.
What’s this new Lotus engine about?
Sponsored by Department for the Environment and Rural Affairs and Department of the Environment Northern Ireland through the Renewable Materials LINK Programme, the single cylinder research engine is due for completion next January. The Omnivore engine features an novel variable compression ratio system and uses a two-stroke operating cycle with direct fuel injection. As a result, the Omnivore engine will be ideally suited to flex-fuel operation with a higher degree of optimisation than is possible with existing architectures.
The study engine will borrow heavily from Lotus’ innovative Exige 270E Tri-fuel. The ethanol-fuelled concept car was developed to better understand the combustion complexities of alcohol and gasoline mixtures. Queen’s University of
Belfast’s School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering will be adding its world leading expertise in engine simulation, with Jaguar Cars Ltd a consultative partner at all stages of development.
‘The physical and chemical properties of alcohols, when compared to gasoline, provide the potential for higher thermal efficiency operation to be achieved,’ says Geraint Castleton-White, head of powertrain development at Lotus Engineering. ‘This single cylinder research engine will investigate a highly thermal efficient combustion system that optimises engine performance to fully exploit the properties of both gasoline and alcohol fuels and maximise efficiency.’
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