Lotus develops engine that eats anything
Lotus Engineering has produced the Omnivore research engine, which can be run on sustainable resource that is biofuels and predicts maximum fuel ratio from these.
One cylinder with a two-stroke operating cycle, along with direct injection and a variable compression ratio makes the engine. This helps it to easily adapt to different alcohol-based fuel types with diverse thermal properties, and it is also extremely thermal-efficient.
It is a one-piece ‘monoblock’ cylinder head and engine block and because of its structure it does not need either a head gasket nor ‘poppet’ valves. The discharge flow can be altered in any ratio, and the density achieved in the cylinder’s compression chamber can be adapted based on demands in the engine.
Lotus Engineering’s head of Power train, Geraint Castleton-White, says “This two-stroke engine could solve these practical difficulties and simultaneously permits a much larger range of compression ratio adjustment, with the potential to perform at a much higher efficiency when running on renewable fuels.”