Submitted via IRC for AndyTheAbsurd
It's called Spark Controlled Compression Ignition, and Mazda made it work.
Despite rumors to the contrary, the internal combustion engine is far from dead. Recently we've seen several technological advances that will significantly boost the efficiency of gasoline-powered engines. One of these, first reported back in August 2017, is Mazda's breakthrough with compression ignition. On Tuesday, Mazda invited us to its R&D facility in California to learn more about this clever new Skyactiv-X engine, but more importantly we actually got to drive it on the road.
The idea behind Skyactiv-X is to be able to run the engine with as lean a fuel-air mixture (known as λ) as possible. Because very lean combustion is cooler than a stoichiometric reaction (where λ=1 and there is exactly enough air to completely burn each molecule of fuel but no more), less energy is wasted as heat. What's more, the exhaust gases contain fewer nasty nitrogen oxides, and the unused air gets put to work. It absorbs the combustion heat and then expands and pushes down on the piston. The result is a cleaner, more efficient, and more powerful engine. And Skyactiv-X uses a very lean mix: a λ up to 2.5.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by choose another one on Wednesday January 31 2018, @09:56AM (2 children)
Bingo.
Coal didn't die because we ran out of it. Last I heard the UK still has about 3 centuries worth of known reserves at long ago usage levels - but we've pretty much stopped using it.
It was a Saudi oil minister who said: "The Stone Age did not end for lack of stone, and the Oil Age will end long before the world runs out of oil."
(Score: 4, Funny) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Wednesday January 31 2018, @10:06AM (1 child)
He was then promptly stoned to death by Saudi religious enforcers for implying that the world is older than 6000 years.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Wednesday January 31 2018, @06:28PM
Huh? Wahhabist Islam has its issues to be sure, but I thought the 6500-year-old Earth thing was purely a Christian idea.