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posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday March 21 2017, @04:21AM   Printer-friendly
from the won't-help-the-noise dept.

http://www.foxnews.com/auto/2017/03/17/ktm-looking-to-create-buzz-with-fuel-injected-two-stroke-engine.html

Two-stroke engines offer twice as many power strokes for a given number of rotations and pistons by doing the exhaust and intake simultaneously. This normally happens spanning the end of the power stroke and the beginning of the compression stroke, though ideally it would only steal time from the beginning of the compression stroke. By tradition, nearly all two-stroke engines use a carburetor and are lubricated by oil being mixed into the fuel. The problem is pollution: unburned fuel passes right through the cylinder because the intake and exhaust valves open together, and this is made much worse by having the fuel be about 2% to 3% lubricating oil.

KTM fixes this for their two-stroke motorcycles by adding fuel injection. KTM injects into the transfer port, which isn't as good as injecting directly into the compression chamber but should still be a huge improvement. Honda has also filed a patent for a general purpose two-stroke with fuel injection. If one of them simply adds a normal oil pump, many of the problems of two-stroke pollution and annoyance should be gone. Next up, we need this small enough for chainsaws and weed cutters.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 21 2017, @03:44PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 21 2017, @03:44PM (#482197)

    Doesn't sound like you've used such cordless tools much yourself.

    Doesn't sound like you've used a properly built electric tool much (if at all) yourself. (For the record, I haven't either.) I can't help but think a good brushless motor, large battery, and possibly a gearbox can provide better power and torque for the same weight as a small 2-stroke gas engine and gas tank. "Refilling" it is much faster (a few seconds as opposed to a few tens of seconds) than gas as well assuming you have additional "fuel."

    Also how are landscapers who have to bring all their tools with them going to keep charging up these batteries all day long after each yard they do?

    It takes 1 hour to charge any LiPo battery from "empty" using a normal charge rate. (Fast-charge LiPo batteries exist, but they usually suffer from fewer charge/discharge cycles.) Keep enough batteries to run for 2 hours and rotate through them. You can use a high-efficiency gasoline or diesel generator, deep cycle lead-acid batteries that you charge overnight at home, or even solar panels on top of your equipment trailer to supply the power to the LiPo chargers. (I'd use deep-cycle batteries continuously charged by solar panels myself.)

    Trigger warning: social/political commentary follows.
    We're literally surrounded by more energy than we can possibly use, but we're too thick to tap into it. We should be looking at ways to replace things that use fossil fuels, not improve on them. The only valid improvement is replacement.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 21 2017, @05:21PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 21 2017, @05:21PM (#482250)

    We should be looking at ways to replace things that use fossil fuels

    Moreover, we should be cuing on the word "fossil" there. The problem is energy density. On a fully charged battery, my weed whacker does what it does well. By the time I'm half way around the house, though, the battery starts fading. I'll be lucky if I can do my whole yard in two batteries. Problem isn't the motor. Problem is energy density.

    I really don't think batteries are the way to go. We should be engineering biodiesel processes. That's the best way to harness solar power, imo. Algae or what have you, or if we can somehow outdo nature with solar cells, can gather the sun's energy for use in the creation of biodiesel. Then biodiesel can be distributed using existing commerical networks. Maybe motors will need to change, I'm not an expert. But chemical energy is a great way to store energy, and we should make better use of it.

    We don't need to abandon liquid fuel. We just need to use a bit of Yankee know-how to close to carbon cycle. The stuff in the ground won't last forever, and we're more than smart enough today to capture carbon from the atmosphere and make fresh fuel ourselves.