A very interesting article in Great Britain’s The Engineer Magazine detailing the innovative work on both sides of the Atlantic around the concept of an Air Hybrid Engine.

Research is taking place on both sides of the Atlantic into innovative air-hybrid engines that promise to be lighter, cheaper and more environmentally-friendly than existing electric-hybrids.

A collaborative project between researchers at Brunel University -which has a patent on the design - and car manufacturers Lotus and Ford is to begin early next year to develop a prototype that could turn a conventional combustion engine into an air compressor.

…The Scuderi design dedicates one side of the engine to combustion and the other two pistons as a dedicated air compressor. Gas is compressed in the compression cylinder and transferred to the power cylinder through a gas passage. All this unique design needs to be converted into an air-hybrid is the addition of an air tank, according to Steve Scuderi, one of the firm’s founders.

Scuderi is honest in his assessment of the drawbacks of an air-hybrid design but is certain that the technology’s advantages make it an exciting alternative to electric-hybrids.

‘While electric-hybrids can take energy and hold it for a longer period of time the problem with air-hybrids is that the energy is stored as heated, compressed air. This, of course, means that as the tank cools the energy dissipates,’ he said.

However not only are the batteries in electric-hybrids big, heavy and difficult to dispose of, they also take a long time to store the energy, according to Scuderi.

In his view, air-hybrids have a big advantage because the energy can be pumped up quickly then discharged in massive amounts. He also believes that his firm’s design would be far more effective than the work being undertaken by Lotus and Ford with Brunel university.

‘They have to switch their pistons between combustion engine mode and compressor mode which costs efficiency - we don’t have to do that,’ he said.

To read the full article, click here.