Other Expert Voices

July 1, 2019

Paul Seredynski

The 2019 ‘ICE’s Still Not Dead’ panel discussion was very much alive. From left: moderator Lindsay Brooke; Fabien Redon, Achates Power; Scott Bailey, Tula Technologies; Dr. Uwe Grebe, AVL; Peter Davies, Honeywell Transportation Systems; Masahiro Moro, Mazda North America; Dr. Atsushi Teraji, Nissan Motor Co.

Noted industry experts in Powertrain technologies shared their views on future propulsion trends during SAE’s 2019 WCX panel, “Still Not Dead: The ICE’s Continued Evolution,” moderated by Editor-in-Chief Lindsay Brooke. Some of those insights included:

Dr. Uwe Grebe, executive VP, AVL: “Fuels have a significant role to play. I think there’s potential to leverage greater efficiency in going to a higher octane number. Then there is discussion of the right utilization of renewables. I think going to synthetic fuels that are based on renewable energy is what we need to promote, because it takes the internal combustion engine out of the CO2 equation.”

Scott Bailey, president and CEO Tula Technology: “The march to an electrified future absolutely has to include clean, efficient, ideally low-cost internal combustion engines—simply because now we have to start combining technologies in order to get the maximum environmental benefit. There’s going to be roughly 2 billion more internal combustion engines produced between now and 2045. It’s an obligation to make them as efficient as we can. Whatever we can do in less complexity and less cost is going to favor some technologies over others. Who the winners will be is still TBD.”

Peter Davies, senior director powertrain, Honeywell Transportation Systems: “Collaboration between the internal combustion engine and the electrification side of the vehicle opens up a huge wealth of opportunities for us to optimize the ICE in new ways. Today with a modern gasoline engine, you can see a BSFC point of 225 grams per kilowatt hour. This is with a Miller cycle; the turbo-charger being the enabler for advanced combustion. It’s providing the boundary conditions and ultimately to provide the oxygen for the fuel. Our job has shifted from just make it a little bit better, to consider it at the system level—and get combustion at 225 grams—and maybe even to lean combustion down into the 190s and 180s. If we’re successful in providing the right boost and boundary conditions for this type of combustion, a vehicle becomes 5% more fuel economic — maybe even more than that.”

Fabien Redon, executive VP and CTO, Achates Power: “What’s important is to really consider the total equation — the life cycle of carbon emissions. So, when you optimize the engine in conjunction with the fuel, then you need to find a solution that ultimately has the highest efficiency and uses a fuel that has the lowest CO2 footprint. One of the challenges that I see happening in the industry is [spark-ignited] ICE engines, by definition, don’t have the same efficiency potential as compression-ignition engines. If the ICE engine, as it is today, requires a fuel that is a higher octane to re extract higher efficiency—but that fuel actually has a higher CO2 footprint — then is that truly the right equation for the whole equation, the full life cycle analysis? These are things we need to take into consideration.”