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.

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