'Omnivorous engine' hopes to run on many fuels

Physorg.com
Published: 13:38 EST, September 08, 2008

Argonne mechanical engineer Thomas Wallner adjusts Argonne's "omnivorous engine," an automobile engine that Wallner and his colleagues have tailored to efficiently run on blends of gasoline, ethanol and butanol.

Unlike regular automobile engines, which typically run solely on gasoline or, in rare instances, on a blend of gasoline and ethanol, the omnivorous engine would be able to run on any blend of conventional gasoline, ethanol or butanol, another organic alcohol that scientists are beginning to consider as a potential biofuel. Even more significantly, the omnivorous engine would use a suite of sensors to calibrate itself so that it burns available fuel as efficiently as possible.

Since the Ford Model T, the first car built to run on both gasoline and ethanol, automakers have introduced a variety of these flexible-fuel vehicles, or FFVs. Since both gasoline and ethanol engines rely on a spark plug to ignite the air-fuel mixture, it doesn't take a lot of effort to equip an engine to burn both kinds of fuel, according to mechanical engineer Thomas Wallner of Argonne's Energy Systems Division.

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