Following previous developments on the Lotus Exige 270 E Tri Fuel concept, that's able to run on Gasoline, Ethanol and Methanol; Lotus had announced they would commence on a Bi-Fuel engine project dubbed 'OMNIVORE', which is able to run on gasoline and alcohol.
However, to achieve desired thermal efficiency, this engine had a unique feature, and Lotus had gotten a partner with them on this on.
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The OMNIVORE engine sports variable compression ratio geometry designs, due gasoline and alcohol both are very different fundamentally, but alcohol had a higher thermal efficiency compared to gasoline, hence by first designing a one cylinder, two stroke engine with direct fuel injection, Lotus hopes to achieve the first steps in completing a fuel efficient, renewable sourced energy engine.
Mike Kimberley, Chief Executive Officer of Group Lotus Plc said: ""Alcohols possess superior combustion characteristics to gasoline which allow greater optimization. Taking full advantage of the benefits of sustainable bio alcohols will ensure a greater percentage of vehicle miles will be travelled using renewable fuels."
Geraint Castleton-White, Head of Powertrain at Lotus Engineering said: "The requirement to operate on gasoline in today's flex-fuel engines limits their thermal efficiency when operating on alcohol fuels. However, the physical and chemical properties of alcohols, when compared to gasoline, provide the potential for higher thermal efficiency operation to be achieved. This single-cylinder research engine will investigate a highly thermal efficient combustion system that optimises engine performance to fully exploit the properties of both gasoline and alcohol fuels and maximise efficiency."
