Achates Power Gets Funding for IC Engine Development

Achates Power is one lucky company as recently, it has been granted $9m by the US Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) to develop an opposed-piston, gasoline compression ignition (OPGCI) engine.

The all-new engine is anticipated to cut the cost of the powertrain system, and compared to a downsized, turbo-charged direct injection gasoline, it is 50 percent more fuel efficient.

Delphi Automotive and Argonne National Laboratory are also part of the three-year project and mull spending $13m on the program, including cost share.

As per the program, Achates will supply a three-cylinder, three liter opposed-piston, gasoline compression ignition engine that can be fitted in huge passenger vehicles, SUVs, pick-up trucks and minivans. The engine architecture will also enable adoption of the technology for two- and four-cylinder engines that can be fitted to small SUVs, CUVs, and heavy-duty pick-up market.

According to Achates Power CEO David Johnson, Delphi and Argonne have already demonstrated on traditional four-stroke engines that gasoline compression ignition (GCI) has a huge potential as it offers diesel-like efficiencies, in a gasoline engine, without typical diesel engine and after treatment cost drawbacks.

He claimed that their opposed-piston engines have shown outstanding efficiency and cleanliness when operating on diesel fuel, adding that combining their engines with GCI technologies would forever change the internal combustion engine market.