Last weekend Sal Scuderi was interviewed on Pundit Review Radio on WRKO.

With gas prices hitting record highs, the topic was hybrid technology and alternative fuels that may someday be able to move the United States away from its dependency on foreign oil.

Full Disclosure: Kevin Whalen, co-host of Pundit Review, also works for Scuderi's PR firm Topaz Partners, and helps to manage this blog.

Springfield (MA) Republican
The little engine that could
Friday, July 14, 2006
By STAN FREEMAN

WEST SPRINGFIELD - What the Duryeas were to the automobile’s past, the Scuderis hope to be to its future.

America’s first manufacturers of gas-powered cars were two Springfield bicycle makers, Charles and Frank Duryea, whose initial effort was a horse-drawn buggy fitted with a four-horsepower, single-cylinder engine they tested on city streets in 1893.

Moving forward a century plus, a West Springfield company, the Scuderi Group, has developed a “split-cycle” engine that could become the linchpin of automotive manufacturing for the next century - if its claims are proved when a prototype of the engine is completed and tested in the summer of 2007.

If it works as well as computer models say it does, the company says the engine could double the fuel efficiency, compared to current internal combustion engines, and it could reduce smog-forming pollution by 50 to 80 percent.

“Right now, there doesn’t appear to be any problem that is a showstopper,” said Salvatore Scuderi, the president of the company.

The reporter, Stan Freeman, not only interviewed Sal Scuderi, he spoke to some engineering professors who say the proof will not be in the pudding, er, prototype.

Other engine specialists who have seen a description of the Scuderi engine are taking the position that the proof is in the pudding.

Jaal Ghandi, a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Wisconsin’s Engine Research Center, said the concept of the split-cycle engine is not new.

“It’s an idea that has been around the block, but maybe with a little modern engineering, it can be made a little better,” he said.

However, he questioned whether it would work as well as claimed, especially the estimate of the improved burn rate. “That claim remains to be proven,” Ghandi said.

He also questioned whether the heat loss as the compressed fuel crosses from one cylinder to the other would be greater than anticipated, reducing energy efficiency. “The heat loss in the crossing duct is a huge problem and it remains to be seen if that can be solved.”

Nevertheless, he said there was nothing in the description of the technology he read that says the engine will not succeed. Instead, everything comes down to the performance test of the physical engine being built by Southwest, he said.

Salvatore Scuderi said the heat loss in the crossing duct was also a great concern of his, and that the company has designed an insulated duct that seems to solve the problem. He said a patent is pending on that design.

To read the full article, click here.

Friends of the Scuderi Group convened at the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass. June 29, to get information and updates about the progress around the Scuderi Air-Hybrid Engine.

The meeting capped a winter and spring full of news and developments involving the engine and the Scuderi Group business. President Sal Scuderi spent over an hour presenting the information and taking questions from the audience. He spoke specifically about the five areas the company is moving forward in concurrently: R&D, Licensing, Patents, Marketing/PR, and Administration. Some of the highlights that Sal shared include:

- The building of the diesel and gasoline prototypes are on the projected pace and are still scheduled to be finished in June 2007.

- The $15 million funding campaign is nearly complete.

- The Scuderi Group expanded and opened a new office in Frankfurt, Germany, appointing Lutz Deyerling as vice president of European operations.

- The Scuderi Group successfully made its North American debut at the Society of Automotive Engineers World Congress in Detroit where the Scuderi’s were named the most visited exhibit at the show.

- The air-hybrid engine designs were also unveiled to the European market at the Engine Expo in Stuttgart, Germany.

- Very positive dialogue has begun with major auto makers in Europe, the U.S., India, Japan, and Germany.

- Invitation from JD Power and Associates to present the engine design at this year’s World Powertrain Conference in Detroit in September

- Getting significant attention from the automotive trade press and automotive industry analysts.

Boston Herald
Bay State company developing energy-efficient, hybrid engines
By Jay Fitzgerald

A Massachusetts company has secured key patents in Japan, China and Russia for car-engine technologies that it says could revolutionize how vehicles are powered.

“It’s very significant,” said Sal Scuderi, president of Scuderi Group, a West Springfield company that has invented a “split-cycle engine” that could boost fuel efficiency by more than one third while spewing less pollution into the air.

The company also has a new “air-hybrid” technology, an offshoot of its changes to the traditional internal combustion engine, that it says could rival current electric hybrid cars now on the market.

The family-run company says it deliberately targeted big geographical markets to secure patents - in the expectation that the technologies might be used widely in cars and other engine-powered products in coming years.

The hope is to take the new-fangled engines and sell the technology rights to automakers and other manufacturers, said Scuderi.

The company is currently building a prototype of the engine, with the hope of unveiling it next year.

If it works as it does in computer simulations, Scuderi said he’s hoping major corporations will take notice.

The “split-cycle engine” was the brainchild of the late Carmelo Scuderi, who died a few years ago, shortly after he won patents on his invention.

Sal Scuderi, Carmelo’s son, said the company is particularly excited about the new hybrid technology, which recaptures and stores excess energy created by the split-cycle engine. The company has already raised $14 million in private and government funding to get its technology off the ground.

With gasoline prices now hovering around $3 a gallon, investors have been recently pouring money into new technologies that offer more efficient and cleaner energy-use alternatives.