ClearFlame Engines, Inc. — Department of Agriculture SBIR Phase I: 8.13

Description

Diesel engines are critical to the agriculture sector--and in many other applications--due to their strong performance and vaunted durability. However, despite their many benefits, these engines are tied to the dirty emissions and price volatility of Diesel fuel. This Diesel dependence puts pressure on manufacturers to meet increasingly stringent emissions standards, and forces users to accept increased aftertreatment costs and rising fuel prices. This USDA-funded effort is exploring an alternative to Diesel engine operation, which replaces over half of the engine's Diesel consumption with ethanol--a low-cost, clean-burning, and domestically-abundant alternative. As a result, sectors that are reliant on Diesel fuel (including agriculture) would see a fuel savings of at least $0.30 for every gallon of Diesel fuel used--approximately a 20% reduction--based on the lower price of ethanol fuel. At the same time, this technology would reduce engine greenhouse gas emissions by 20% due to the low carbon nature of ethanol, and also decrease the burden on the engine aftertreatment, improving component lifetime. Finally, widespread use of this technology (including beyond agriculture) would lead to higher demand for ethanol fuel, increasing the profits generated from feedstocks crops. This would serve to bolster revenue for farmers, while also allowing them to take pride in using a fuel they help to produce.During this project, the technology will be explored, studied, and optimized on two different engine platforms. The first (a research engine) will be used to increase the scientific understanding of the technology, allowing other scientists and engineers to make further improvements in the future. The second (a work truck) will be used to observe performance in a real-world setting, helping ensure that the results from the lab can be translated to the farmers (and other Diesel users) that will ultimately use the technology. To be successful, this technology must demonstrate the ability to displace enough Diesel fuel to have a significant economic impact--likely around 50% Diesel displacement, as stated above--and also achieve emissions levels that make it compliant with existing emissions regulations (albeit at less cost than traditional Diesel aftertreatment). These results, if successfully achieved, can be used later to deploy the technology as an aftermarket retrofit, bringing the many benefits of ethanol fuel to the wide range of applications currently dominated by Diesel engines.