would be great if actually worked.
(maybe it does i dunno)
i dont understand how the valve that lets the compressed fuel/air into the 2nd chamber is timed or operated, it does seem crucial for the workings of this engine.

and what is that "red" chamber above the engine good for? what goes in there is just a fuel/air mix.

what is the thermodynamic limit of the energy efficiency of a combustion engine?

Motortrend did an "analysis" of it. http://www.motortrend.com/features/editorial/112_0606_technologue_hybrid_qa/scuderi.html

Certainly it seems interesting. By changing engine designs, we could decrease fuel usage by some 10% or more. I would guess that if it is as real as its being sold, you will see auto manufacturers putting it into concept cars in the nest couple of years.

They don't tell you much on their site; it's mainly just a bunch of hype about their technology and the "world renown independent research facility". (What a load of marketing bull!)

Honda will spend $4.72 billion (US) on research in 2007. How much money does the Scuderi Group have? What are the other auto firms spending? (A lot you can count on it.) Maybe they do have a great new idea, but more than likely they don't. I want to see them field some engines first and get some real life results about their performance and reliability.

Here's the honda link:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000101&refer=japan&sid=aGUDxfTgbHY4

Well, I'm no engineer, but I'll start this out. It is hard to tell what the actual outcome of the engine will be without a third party testing it and posting the results. I didn�t see anything like this on their site yet. That said, their innovation basically comes down to compressing the air before combustion. The power from an engine comes not only from gasoline, but from oxygen also. Putting more oxygen (e.g. compressing the gas before entering the chamber) increases the power the engine can make. By compressing the air before hand, you get the higher horsepower figures along with higher exhaust temperatures which reduce emotions. This seems to be a new take on an old idea. Superchargers and turbo chargers are used on many vehicles, including almost every large truck on the road today. They compress the air before entering the combustion chamber also. Combine pressurization with diesel technology,(also commonly done on large trucks and by Volkswagen in particular) and you get good power along with good fuel economy. This new technology may be more versatile and have a wider range of uses because of the way it pressurizes the air, but they are probably limited. I wouldn't expect this to make any revolutionary changes in the way we live, but it is a neat idea.

Of all the nearly carbon-neutral technology (biodiesel, alcohol, hydrogen) that is currently available why are you putting this technology on your blog? So what if it is a modest improvement in efficiently burning fossil fuels? Fossil fuels are on their way out. The coming generations realize this and will not hold on to the draconian ideas posted on this ridiculous blog. This blog should be re-named "Discrediting and Diverting Effective Discourse on Global Climate Change." The ineffective discussion of the issue provided by this commercial blog just further demonstrates the magnitude of the coupling of multi-national business interests with media.

Laura, I feel it is extremely irresponsible of you to divert interest to real solutions by putting this "snake oil" technology on your blog. Do a service for your country and do your homework on recent technological developments (i.e. breakthrough in algal oil for biodiesel by New Zealand researchers) that have revolutionary implications. Try and think outside the way you have lived your life, because future generations will be paying for it. This is something young people take very seriously, and your stupid blog (so far) is a joke to those that are better informed and less biased.

Johnny5 - Wouldn't an engine that more efficiently uses gasoline (and diesel) also more efficiently use biodiesel, ethanol or butanol? Seems like it to me. Given the amount of biological material it takes to produce biodiesel, ethanol, etc. it seems to be only common sense that we'd want to run efficient engines.

Which multinational business interests are you referring to? AccuWeather is a privately held company, with no connection to any multinational corporation.

Thanks for the tip on the New Zealand research - I'll take a look at it. See how easy it is to be congenial?

Off topic, but to answer your question:

Check out: TheyRule.org for some info on the power elite. While Accuweather may be privately held, it isn't held by the 99% of the people that don't own anything (most people in the U.S. having net debt) The power elite is all connected simply by having a bias in the status quo that is destroying the ecology of our planet.

Re: Engine efficiency question: Actually diesel engines are already way more efficient than the technology you posted. A small diesel sedan (say VW Jetta) can get 50mpg, similar to current hybrid gasoline cars. A real improvement would be a diesel hybrid vehicle running on algal lipids.

Since it is clear that global warming is happening and accepted as truth world wide, wouldn't your blog be most useful in informing people what they can do to make a difference?

I encourage you to seek out simple solutions and currently feasible technologies to mitigate our impact on climate change to showcase on your blog.

Fuel efficiency is part of the answer. A modern SUV has a much more efficient engine than a VW bug, but the bug gets better gas mileage because it is lighter. There is also the number of cars to consider. In the 70s in response to the clean air act manufacturers decreased the amount of NOx produced by a car per gallon of gas burned by a factor of ten. The NOx released to the atmosphere still increased because the number of cars increased by more than a factor of ten. You can't increase engine efficiency by a factor of ten. The efficiency of internal combustion engines has been steadily increasing with time. If you plot efficiency vs. time 40% is about what you expect new engines to deliver. The Carnot Cycle limit on engine efficiency is about ~60%. The most efficient transportation engine built to date was a marine diesel that achieved 52% efficiency.

The only long term solution is to use alternative fuels.