Uncooled Two-Stroke Gas Engine for Heat Pump Drive

This paper describes the design and analysis of a family of natural gas fueled, uncooled, two-stroke, lean burn, thermal-ignition engines. The engines were designed specifically to meet the requirements dictated by the commercial heat pump application. The engines have a power output ranging from 15 to 100 kW; a thermal efficiency of 36 percent; a mean time between failure greater than 3 years; and a life expectancy of 45,000 hours. To meet these specifications a family of very simple, uncooled, two-stroke cycle engines were designed which have no belts, gears or pumps. The engines utilize crankcase scavenging, lubrication, stratified fuel introduction to prevent raw fuel from escaping with the exhaust gas, use of and ceramic rolling contact bearings. The Thermal Ignition Combustion System (TICS) [1] is used for ignition to enable the engines to operate with a lean mixture and eliminate spark plug erosion.