Sturman Cycle Engine Ready to Go

Sturman Industries’ revolutionary engine design and the supporting Sturman cycles that make the camless engine both highly efficient and fuel agnostic are close to being ready for real-world exposure. In a recent two-day Fleet Retreat at the company’s Woodland Park, Colo., headquarters, senior managers of some of the nation’s major truck and bus fleets were shown Sturman’s Air Controlled Engine (ACE) technology, which consists of electronically controlled hydraulic fuel injection and camless inlet and exhaust valve actuation.

The benefits of the technology, which has been under development for two decades since the introduction of the first Sturman fuel injector with digital valve control, include optimized fuel efficiency, emissions compliance with no aftertreatment devices and the ability to burn diesel, natural gas, ethanol and even ammonia with no mechanical changes to the engine.

In fact, no changes are required at all in switching fuels providing the correct injectors are installed for gaseous or liquid fuels. The control system recognizes within one cycle what fuel is being presented and optimizes, through closed-loop control, the injection timing and valve lift and phasing to ideally suit the engine to the fuel.