EcoMotors International, the fuel- efficient engine maker backed by billionaires Bill Gates and Vinod Khosla, chose China as the location for its first factory, which will be built with support from the automotive-parts conglomerate Anhui Zhongding Holding Group Co.
Zhongding will invest more than $200 million to build the plant in China’s Anhui province, Allen Park, Michigan-based EcoMotors said today in a statement.
Closely held EcoMotors expects the plant to produce 150,000 engines a year starting in 2014, representing $1 billion of potential revenue, Chief Executive Officer Don Runkle said in a phone interview.
The deal “gives us a toehold in the biggest engine market and fastest-growing engine market in the world,” Runkle said.
EcoMotors’s Opoc engine uses opposed pistons and cylinders that improve fuel economy and lower greenhouse-gas emissions by as much as 50 percent compared to conventional engines, Runkle said. The company has talked to potential customers including Airbus SAS, Boeing Co. (BA) and Generac Power Systems Inc.

Engine Design
Opposed-Piston Opposed-Cylinder Engine

This patented design creates a ground-breaking internal combustion engine family architecture that will run on a number of different fuels, including gasoline, diesel and ethanol. The opoc's new opposed piston-opposed cylinder direct gas exchange operation provides the well known emissions benefit of 4-cycle engines, the simplicity benefits of 2-cycle engines, the power density of the less well known opposed piston engine, and the extraordinary developments in computer and thermodynamics all tied together in a new and proprietary engine architecture. It comprises two opposing cylinders per module, with a crankshaft between them, each cylinder has two pistons moving in opposite directions. This innovative design configuration eliminates the cylinder-head and valve-train components of conventional engines, offering an efficient, compact and simple core engine structure. The result is an engine family that is lighter, more efficient and economical, with lower exhaust emissions. Here you can see this revolutionary engine in operation, which helps to illustrate the simplicity, elegance and compactness of its design.

Advantages:

Lightweight with high power density
produces more than 1 hp per pound of engine weight
Low emissions
High fuel economy
Simplicity of design for manufacturing efficiency, economy and operating durability
50-percent fewer parts than a conventional engine
straightforward assembly
no cylinder heads or valve train
uses conventional components, materials and processes
Inherently low noise and vibration
all engine forces counteract each other
runs as a fully balanced 4-cylinder 4-stroke engine
Modular Benefits

To meet a wide range of power output needs, these engines can be “teamed” in multiple modules, connected to each other via an electrically controlled clutch. This provides a variable displacement engine that offers significant fuel savings, optimized engine map performance and reduced emissions for real-world applications. Here you can see an engine with a second module added, which will double the power output for larger vehicles, but that can be de-coupled to provide significant fuel savings.

The Engine Family

At this time, EcoMotors International is developing several versions of the opoc™ engine, listed below is the topline specifications for the EM100 in a single-module configuration using diesel fuel.

EM100
Cylinder bore 100 mm
Dry weight 296 lb.
Dimensions LxWxH (inches) 22.8 x 41.3 x 18.5
Horsepower 325 @ 3,500 rpm
Torque 664 lb.-ft @ 2,100 rpm
Power density 1.1 hp per lb.