New engine gets federal research funds

The West Springfield, MA-based Scuderi Group said it’s receiving $1.2 million in federal funding to develop of its new internal combustion engine design expected to deliver what Scuderi calls a “quantum leap” in performance due to new fluid and thermodynamic characteristics at the heart of the engine.

Salvatore Scuderi, president of the Scuderi Group, said the design and performance of the this new engine has been verified by Southwest Research Laboratories, and that his company is already building the first diesel and gasoline prototypes based on this new engine platform, which should be completed this year.

Scuderi said this engine is expected to:

• double and possibly triple the fuel efficiency in today's gas and diesel engines
• emit 80% less emissions than today's gas and diesel engines
• enhance the performance of hybrid engines
• provide significantly more power than a conventional engine
• be easier to manufacture because it uses same components found in today’s engines

  The key, said Scuderi, is split-cycle technology that changes the heart of the internal combustion engine to improving how an engine converts chemical energy to mechanical energy. Unlike conventional engines, the Scuderi engine divides the four strokes of a standard engine -- intake, compression, power, and exhaust -- over a paired combination of one compression cylinder and one power cylinder.

  “These two cylinders perform their respective functions once per crankshaft revolution, when typically conventional engines require two revolutions of the crankshaft to perform these functions,” he said. Scuderi also noted that this technology – developed by his late father, Carmelo Scuderi, over the last 40 years – can be applied to any internal combustion engine including gasoline, diesel, bio-diesel, and natural gas and is patented worldwide with six patents issued.