After many hours of travel via trains, planes and automobiles, the Scuderi team arrived at the brand new Stuttgart Messa on Tuesday for the opening of the 2008 Engine Expo, Europe’s premier trade show focusing on engine design and development. This is the third consecutive year the Scuderi Group and its Air-Hybrid Engine had participated in the event.
Sal Scuderi presents his talk during the Open Technology Forum held Tuesday at Engine Expo in Stuttgart, Germany.
For the first time, an actual model of what is expected to be the world’s most fuel efficient internal combustion engine was on display at the exhibit. Showcased on a revolving stand in the center of the booth, the model attracted steady crowds of engineers, investors, students and the media. This is the first time an actual model of the Scuderi engine has been available for public viewing and features the split cycle arrangement and valve train that was recently proven by an independent laboratory to match or exceed all earlier computer simulated predictions. And the OEMs definitely took notice as many of their research and development teams poked, prodded and inquired about the innovative features of the engine.
Another highlight of the day was a presentation by Scuderi Group president Sal Scuderi to a packed Open Technology Forum where he participated in the Reducing Emissions track. Titled, “Air Could Be the Answer,” Sal explored the idea of using compressed air to reduce vehicle emissions. In his presentation, he highlighted that the Scuderi Air-Hybrid - with its air tank that captures wasted energy in the form of compressed air - has the potential of increasing fuel efficiency to historical levels and reduce the release of NOx by up to 80 percent compared to all the vehicles on the road today. He also discussed how the Air-Hybrid is expected to have considerably more torque an power over conventional engines with minimal manufacturing and retooling costs.
The day was capped off by the Scuderi Group’s annual booth buffet reception, where over 200 engineers and press attended and had the chance to learn more about the Air-Hybrid technology.
Scuderi Group executives are busy planning for their next trip, this time to Engine Expo 2008, May 6-8 in Stuttgart, Germany.
Now in its tenth year, Engine Expo is billed as “the most important international trade show for automotive, bus and truck engine designers and manufacturers … Engine Expo provides the most intense concentration of engine component manufacturers and technology providers anywhere in the world.”
Scuderi Group executives and staff will be at Stand 5342. The company invites attendees to stop by to get an overview of the Scuderi Air-Hybrid Engine, and to learn about recent test findings — based on a working valve train prototype — that back the design Scuderi Air-Hybrid Engine’s crossover valve train.
These findings demonstrate that the sophisticated computer models that the Scuderi Group is using to develop the Air-Hybrid Engine are producing concrete engineering results that work as expected when prototyped.
When asked about plans for Engine Exop, Scuderi President Sal Scuderi said that the company plans to display a demonstration model of the valve train (seen below), so that engineers can “touch and feel it and get a much better picture of how the hardware is going to work.” .
The Scuderi Group recently announced that tests of the Scuderi Engine’s valve train by an independent laboratory have exceeded expectations with a nearly perfect match to initial computer models of the engine.
The crossover valve train is one of the most critical portions of the Scuderi Engine.
In this podcast, Scuderi Group President Sal Scuderi talks about the latest developments.
VIENNA, Austria, April 28, 2008 -Oil prices hit an all-time high near $120 a barrel Monday after a weekend refinery strike closed a pipeline system that delivers a third of Britain’s North Sea oil to refineries in the U.K.
The shutdown comes amid supply outages in Nigeria that have helped to support oil against a strengthening dollar.
“We’ve got a confluence of a number of events that have really disrupted crude oil supply,” said Victor Shum, an energy analyst with Purvin & Gertz in Singapore. “That’s what’s driving oil to a new record even though the U.S. dollar actually strengthened a bit.”
Light, sweet crude for June delivery rose to a record $119.93 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract eased back to $119.04 a barrel by noon in Europe, up 52 cents from Friday’s close of $118.52.
BP PLC on Sunday shut down the Forties Pipeline System that carries more than 700,000 barrels of oil a day to the U.K. because of a 48-hour walkout by employees at a refinery in central Scotland.
Workers walked out of the Grangemouth refinery vowing not to give ground in their dispute with refinery owner Ineos over plans to close a generous pension scheme to new employees. Ineos chief executive Tom Crotty said it could take a week for the plant to return to production once the strike ends on Tuesday. BP said its pipeline could be up and running within 24 hours.
BP’s Kinneil plant, the onshore processing center for the pipeline system, is powered from the Grangemouth site.
“With the refinery being shut down, it will affect supplies from the North Sea and that has a potentially significant impact,” said David Moore, a commodity strategist with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia in Sydney. “That comes at the same time that there’s production disruptions from Nigeria so the combined effect of those is the immediate factor that’s put pressure on oil prices.”
Analyst Stephen Schork also attributed the bullish market to the combination of events stoking supply concerns.
The final day of the 75th Annual SAE World Congress came to a close Thursday. With sore feet and fatigue very evident among the group, the team kept continuing to be available to all who wanted to engage.
Even with marketing material reinforcements arriving that morning, information about the most efficient internal combustion engine was grabbed at such a fast rate that only four kits were left when the lights were finally shut off at Detroit’s Cobo Center. Even still as the official close was announced, local OEMs were still hanging around the exhibit booth wanting to know more about the latest valve train test rig and results of the recent full load study. The action never stopped.
On hand to support Scuderi Group’s sponsorship of the SAE VIP Reception were European Vice President of Operations Lutz Deyerling, Vice President of Sales and Marketing Nick Scuderi, Ruth Scuderi, President Sal Scuderi, and Vice President Steve Scuderi.
Team Scuderi closed out the event by executing their exclusive sponsorship of the VIP reception prior to the big annual banquet that honors the year’s automotive engineering notables. It was a formal affair with automotive elite on hand to mingle, eat, drink and be merry as they toasted each others’ annual accomplishments. A good time was had by all.
The group now heads home to West Springfield and Frankfurt as they regroup and rest up for another active week coming up. With meetings with a major OEM in France and marketing/public relations firms in Germany, Team Scuderi will continue its tour as it gears up for Engine Expo Stuttgart in May.
