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The major events in the development of a “pumpless” gas engine concept are related. The immediate objective of the subject program was to develop a combustion system for natural gas fueled engines which, when compared with conventional gas engines, would be operationally simpler and easier to maintain with no appreciable penalty in specific fuel consumption. The pumpless gas principle was successfully demonstrated on a single-cylinder, 2-cycle engine. The concept was then extended, with the aid of combustion photography, to a single-cylinder, 4-cycle laboratory engine. The feasibility of the concept was further demonstrated by the conversion of a commercially available 4-cycle, 4-cyl diesel engine.

Exhaust heat utilization for internal combustion engines has centered around turbosupercharging in recent years, neglecting the promising field of compounding a piston engine with a gas turbine in which, unlike turbocharging, turbine power is fed back to the engine crankshaft. The piston engine can cope with high gas pressure and temperature, whereas the gas turbine can efficiently utilize the energy at relatively low pressure and temperature and large volume flows. By compounding, this-piston engine will handle the high pressure, high temperature phase of the combustion cycle and extend the expansion ratio of the gases to atmospheric pressure by completing the low pressure, low temperature phase in the gas turbine. The marriage of the two engines will result in an outstanding power package with the highest thermal efficiency possible.