Arlington, Mass., June, 2007. Improving the fuel economy, emissions and power of engines while maintaining their simplicity and low cost, has been a great challenge. Dr. Ward, Harvard, Ph.D, recognized that the solution to these problems lay in the science of lean burn and spark ignition. After 30 years pursuing these challenges, CEI not only found low-cost solutions to these problems, but was able to build a prototype engine that demonstrated an ultra-lean capability and efficiency. CEI developed a unique, high energy patented ignition in the form of a twin-plug system for use with a low-cost patented 2-valve engine to make it a lean burn, fast burn, homogeneous charge engine. It set records in lean burn and fuel economy. Honda and Chrysler made similar designs to the 2-valve, twin-plug engine but lacked CEI’s lean burn, fast-burn capability.

The most difficult goals to overcome were in the field of spark ignition and lean burn. It took some 12 years to solve these problems, considered to be insoluble by the industry. Two Design News articles were written on the subject in 1997 and 2001, “Rebirth of Lean Burn Technology” and “Lean Burn Lives”. In 2001, CEI presented an SAE paper (2001-01-0548) on a special 2-valve, dual ignition, squish-flow engine. It showed breakthroughs in lean burn and fuel economy by burning mixtures far leaner than was considered possible (30 to 1 AFR).

The CEI ignition is what the industry seeks, but with advantages it had never envisioned before. This includes 5 times the spark energy and 5 times the flow-coupling capability for the same size of its coils. It also has 5 times faster charge time and 5 times faster rise time for many advantages. It has a 90% efficient, 42 volt, low-cost converter to make it the most powerful ignition ever made. Independent tests conducted on a 2005 Ford Focus with CEI ignition improved efficiency by 5%. This is a large gain since the engine already used EGR, which is only 60% as efficient as dilution with air, i.e. lean burn, which can raise fuel efficiency to 15% with the CEI ignition.

In an engine operating at various loads: cold start, light load, moderate load and heavy load, different factors play different roles. At cold start, CEI’s ignition is able to deliver 10 times higher energy to ignite lean air-fuel mixtures. At light loads, the engine achieves maximum efficiency by operating ultra-lean, in the range of 30 to 1 AFR. Lean burn efficiency is higher due to lower pumping losses, higher γ, and lower heat transfer. Above 50% of full power, the engine operates at a variable compression ratio, from 9:1 to 13:1 CR, and at stoichiometric AFR with EGR.

To get the full benefit of the CEI technology, three steps are required. One is to replace the existing ignition with CEI’s ignition (15% gain). The second step is to create dual-flow-coupling ignition by modifying the cylinder head of the 2-valve engine (30% gain). The third step is to combine the ignition with a variable compression ratio system to maximize the fuel efficiency (45% gain). See the GPC paper, Volume 29, 2004, Dr. Michael Ward; SAE paper 920,416; and the Auto Engineering, Volume 84,#6; and I Mech E 1979, page 107, Michael May’s Fireball Engine.