Use this search box to find articles that have run in our newspapers over the last several years.

Local company may receive $2 million for engine development

By Michelle Kealey

Staff Writer



WEST SPRINGFIELD Congressman John Olver (D-1st District) recently announced that the U.S. House of Representatives approved a Defense Appropriations Bill that would provide the Scuderi Group of West Springfield $2 million to help develop the prototype for a more efficient internal combustion engine.

The bill has been approved by the House, but the Senate has not yet voted on the matter. According to Olver's press release, once the Senate approves the bill, a conference committee will work to reconcile the House and Senate bills into a conference report, which would then need approval by both chambers and must be signed by the president before it becomes a law.

Although the bill has not been fully approved, Salvatore Scuderi, president of The Scuderi Group, said that the funding would have "good impact" on his company.

He explained that his father, Carmelo Scuderi, came up with the concept of the split-cycle design for the engine. He added that the patents for the engine design were filed in 2001 and the Scuderi Group formed as a company in 2002.

"We are a thermal dynamic and fluid dynamic company," he said, adding that his father, who passed away 2.5 years ago, was a "pretty dynamic thermal engineer."

Scuderi explained that any piston engine goes through a process of the otto cycle, in which chemical energy is converted to mechanical energy.

"It has been like that for decades and is the heart of the engine," he said.

He explained that the Scuderi Group modified the otto cycle technology into a split-cycle system, which separates the otto cycle into two separate, but paired cylinders.

"It is an improvement to the heart of the engine," he said. "The impact is pretty staggering."

The combustion engine is used anywhere from in an automobile to smaller engines such as a lawn mower to something as large as a train, according to Scuderi.

He added that, because his company changed the heart of the engine, it can be used for diesel, natural gas, gasoline or "just about anywhere there is a piston engine."

Scuderi said that the design was verified by an outside independent source the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas.

He explained that the Institute verified the performance of the engine design through computer analysis and compared it to the original otto engine.

He added that the computer analysis of the efficiency of the design is about 43 percent. The otto engine runs at a 33 percent efficiency, according to Scuderi.

"It burns cleaner, reducing toxic emissions by up to 80 percent," he said.

He also said that with the 10 percent gain, it "almost doubles the mileage of a vehicle," "is more efficient than a hybrid system and only costs about the same as a conventional engine."

Scuderi said that his company is in the process of building a prototype, which he added is an expensive process.

"Engine development can easily go into the tens of millions [of dollars]," he said.

According to Scuderi, engine development is generally done by much larger companies and the government appropriation would "make it possible to move forward."

Scuderi said that the Scuderi Engine is patented around the world and the company has been working on it for three years.

He added that the Scuderi Group continues to grow its patent portfolio. Stephen Scuderi is the company's patent attorney.

"It is good to have a patent attorney [on board]," Scuderi said about his brother.

Scuderi said that the target market for his company is the manufacturers. He said that the Scuderi Group plans to license the technology for the engine.

"We are in the field of licensing intellectual property," he said, adding that the company has has discussions with several potential licensees.

Scuderi said that the timing of the funding and the engine development "could not be better" because of the problems with oil and gas prices.

He said that the credit for possibly obtaining funding "really goes to Congressman Olver."

The Scuderi Group went to Olver in search of some funding.

Scuderi explained that Olver has a technological background and was "able to recognize the technology and impact it might have and thought it was something worthy of trying to appropriate government funding."

Scuderi said that he knows that it is not 100 percent sure that the company will receive funding, but there is a strong possibility that it will make it through the Senate because it went through the Appropriations Office unchanged.

He believes that probably the Scuderi Group will receive, if not all of the funding, at least a good portion of it.

Scuderi said that a lot of people did not believe that the engine development would have gotten as far as it has.

He added that he thinks his father "always knew it was as good as he predicted it would be and he would be really [glad] to see it get this far to say the least."

Olver said, "Because the internal combustion engine is the leading producer of energy, it is clear that improvements in its efficiency would have significant impacts on the economy, dependency on foreign oil, public health and the environment. It's exciting to know that work in this area is happening right now in West Springfield."

According to Olver's press release, the potential benefits of the Scuderi Engine are:

Gas mileage per vehicle would increase by up to 75 percent

Vehicles would be able to exceed all current mileage and emission standards, including hydrocarbon and nitrogen oxides emission standards, without compromising weight, performance or safety

CAF standards could easily be met or exceeded

Consumers would save billions of dollars in fuel costs

Reduction in emissions would result in a healthier environment

The overall cost of the vehicle would be reduced, by downsizing or eliminating the catalytic converter

Our national security would benefit by reducing dependency on foreign oil

Our military would benefit by an increased operating range on its vehicles

The economy would gain from a reduction in oil prices and increased job opportunities.