When Bill Gates puts his money on something, the world pays attention. The latest being his joint investment of $23.5 million with Vinod Khosla in EcoMotors International and their Opoc technology. The Opoc engine, is an “opposed piston opposed cylinder” engine setup that is said to use 50 percent less parts and provides 50 percent more fuel efficiency. EcoMotors have said that they will use the funding for the testing and construction of demonstration units of the Opoc engine.
The Opoc engine works by the use of two opposing cylinders which contain two pistons each. The crankshaft is housed in between the opposing cylinders and is turned by the rods connected to the pistons. This system works without cylinder heads and valve trains while employing a 2-stroke like system which guarantees quick torque.
Apparently using their EM100 diesel model, which has a cylinder bore size of 100mm and weighs 134 kilogrammes, it is capable of producing a power figure of 325hp at 3500rpm along with an incredible 900Nm of torque. Another plus point would be the fact that this could use any form of fuel be it petrol, diesel or ethanol.
What has interested the two investors more than anything is the practicality of the design, which allows flexibility in its uses along with it being less expensive to manufacture, purchase, and operate. This could lead to various applications in different parts of the world where expensive electric or hybrid cars are just not practical.
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cool=)
flat configuration….. it sounds like boxer engine to me? no?
Yah, that’s what came into my mind too.
Didnt Alfa has one of those in the 146? (correct me if I’m wrong)
like the subaru imprezza?
Wow….Double Boxer Engine…no valve, no timing chain….bla..bla…only 2 piston per cylinder….
will we hear rotary a-like sounds???
nice….if this become a success bill gates will get more richer..huhuhu
Hmmm… will it give Blue Screen or I bet the Engine will crash…. :)
anything to do with bill gates or microsoft kekeke
lol.. any problem.. shut down and restart :P
But you’ll have to have 1 hand on the bonnet, another leg on the rear left tyre & another hand on the rear windscreen before you can even restart ;-)
LOL!
ctrl+alt+del
and virus too… then crash…
awesome…. it look alike boxer in different way….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UesbkO3NvoY
Two stroke engines are more efficient but a no no emissions wise. Some years back two stroke engines were being looked at seriously by major carmakers but they couldn’t get it to pass the tough emission standards of the day. Can they do it now with the present regulations?
Honda even stopped making two stroke bikes…
Two stroke with direct fuel injection can definitely pass the emissions standards of now and the future. The main problem with current 2 stroke engine is ‘short circuiting’ of the combustion chamber.
problem with 2 stroke engine was the fact that it releases unburnt fuel along with exhaust….however recent advancement in 2 stroke engine technology introduced direct injection which virtually eliminated those concerns…as a matter of fact, the direct injection 2 stroke engine produces more power while emitting less pollution compared to four stroke engines….
that was the technilogt used in Lotus Omnivore prototype engine….however in terms of noise, can’t say much about that though….
its quite interesting to see an old concept revisited after being abandoned due to emission issues ( or some of them due to lack of interest of the car maker).
opposed piston engine is quite popular during late 40s to early 60s due to its compact design and high power to weight ratio, powering forward cab trucks, ships, airplane, and locomotives..sadly the material issue, maintenance and also low interest in this type of engine shove it into obscurity..
further reading
http://www.commer.org.nz/Commer_Connections/Other.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opposed_piston_engine
you have to drive your car to the workshop everyday to receive its updates
no need …just download
i also wonder how will they regulate the emission, since two strokes tends to have unburnt and partially burnt fuel in the exhaust…
i wonder why they did not put in any emission results?
if this going to be a success it would be good for motoring industry…..just look at the massive torque……
If this is adopted, the engine bays will be a lot smaller.
good invention. 50% less fuel?
just like a train engine but a lot more smaller..
Vulnerable to virus, worms or trojan horses? :-P
huhu…
windows –> crash
xbox –> 3rod
ice –> ???
on the paper, the idea sounds good.
how about on the prototype?
reciprocating mechanism tends to vibrate.
a friend of mine told me that, in earlier days, boxer engine can only be tuned by pro.
else the engine will rock (shaking/vibrate).
ok. goodluck.
ps: i really like the idea of high efficiency (low FC?) & reduced engine space :)
steve jobs will introduce iEngine for sure…
We’ll just have to wait and see.
Engines with less cylinder will normally vibrates. They’ll probably need to add balancer or something.
Further, the word ‘capable’ seems to suggest ‘in theory’. What are the typical output stats?
If this work, it’ll probably know VW’s 1.4 TFSI engine out of it’s pedestal.
And very exciting change ahead of us.
Smart engineering,knowing BillGates, he and Vinod Khosla of EcoMotors International will franchise this engines to Hyundai for mass production,,,,in 5 years time it will arrive in malaysia,,,expect full tank of diesel will keep you going for 2000 km.
Very nice idea, the complexcity of this engine is the timing of both piston to create the compression rate to combust the fuel…
Since it only use 2 piston both to compress the fuel, you will need to adjust the compression rate for different fuel & different purpose. So that 1 also need to highlight also for this engine..
Still the last question is that… How durable is this engine can last? And spare part cost & availability… If the design is too special, so does the price…
wow! later will come open source new engine,and for sure can be downloaded for free! so just ignore this one.. :)
I thought Lotus is developing similar technology to be used in electric car?
yes iEngine coming soon by steve jobs
nothing new..
Mesti bunyi dia macam lori
u can get the jack sparrow version in pasar malam.. hehehe
Whatever said, what USD23m means to him? I guess just a pack of nasi lemak…
Or a kind of fire & forget only.
He even donated BILLIONS in US!
Cool… but can imagine, while driving…
WINDOWS PROTECTION ERROR. ENGINE SHUTTING DOWN.
no.. it suppose to be….
“Your engine has perform an illegal operation. It will shut down now same goes to the braking system.” haha..the famous windows 98
the horse power counts look promising, imagine a moped bike with 300++hp lol
As compared to the OPOC engine,
the pattakon Opposed-piston-Pulling-Rod-Engine (OPRE engine) is:
more compact,
lighter,
simpler,
cheaper,
is based on “built-in” scavenging pump of the piston type,
has a wider rev range,
is more vibration-free,
provides additional time to the fuel to get prepared and burned more efficiently (and in-time),
has better lubrication, etc,
For more details (videos of the OPRE prototypes running on Diesel fuel, dimesnions, weight etc): http://www.pattakon.com/pattakonOPRE.htm
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