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ELEVATE (European Low Emission V4 Automotive Two-stroke Engine) was a research project part funded by the European Commission to design and develop a compact and efficient gasoline two-stroke automotive engine. Five partners were involved in the project, IFP (Institut Français Du Pétrole) who were the project leaders, Lotus, Opcon (Autorotor and SEM), Politecnico di Milano and Queen's University Belfast. The general project targets were to achieve Euro 3 emissions compliance without DeNOx catalisation, and a power output of 120 kW at 5000 rev/min with maximum torque of 250 Nm at 2000 rev/min. Specific targets were a 15% reduction in fuel consumption compared to its four-stroke counterpart and a size and weight advantage over the four-stroke diesel with significant reduction in particulate and NOx emissions. This paper describes the design philosophy of the engine as well as the application of the various partner technologies used.

The fuel cell engine is being developed to be the future power source for transportation, gradually substituting the internal combustion engine. For transportation both size and weight of components are very important. A common way of reducing size and weight of fuel cell engines is to use pressurized air systems. The stack, heat exchangers, pipes, valves etc. will be reduced in size and weight. There are also other advantages with pressurized systems: the response time when an increase in the power output is required is shortened, exhausting of the water continuously produced in stack is improved. Pressurized systems need an efficient, small, lightweight compressor. The Twin Screw compressor meets those requirements. By adding a Twin Screw Expander downstream the stack, 30-35% of the compressor input power can be recovered and the power output and the size and weight of the compressor drive motor reduced accordingly.

The purpose of the ELEVATE (European Low Emission V4 Automotive Two-stroke Engine) industrial research project is to develop a small, compact, light weight, high torque and highly efficient clean gasoline 2-stroke engine of 120 kW which could industrially replace the relatively big existing automotive spark ignition or diesel 4-stroke engine used in the top of the mid size or in the large size vehicles, including the minivan vehicles used for multi people and family transportation. This new gasoline direct injection engine concept is based on the combined implementation on a 4-stroke bottom end of several 2-stroke engine innovative technologies such as the IAPAC compressed air assisted direct fuel injection, the CAI (Controlled Auto-Ignition) combustion process, the D2SC (Dual Delivery Screw SuperCharger) for both low pressure engine scavenging and higher pressure IAPAC air assisted DI and the ETV (Exhaust charge Trapping Valve).