Split-cycle: The engine of the future
Bruce Frank
Bruce Frank
again.The local paper ran an article a few days ago that I thought was
right up our alley. An Australian inventor has developed an
engine called a "split-cycle engine. I received permission from the
Wilmington News Journal Newspaper to reprint it here. Staff
reporter Dale Dellabrida wrote the article and it appeared in the Journal
on January 9, 1995. There is some background info that
throws some doubt on the validity of the product. The Journal required me
to publish the article in its entirety.
MOTOR STATE USA?
The Australian are coming - with a gasoline engine said to run cleaner
and cheaper. They claim
it could revolutionize the auto industry. Will "split-cycle" technology
convince Detroit?
It's not much to look at: a slab of steel the size of a small pizza.
Still, the modest machine could cheaply and cleanly power
everything from autos to factories, its Australian inventer says.
After six years tinkering with the design, Rick Mayne has yet to sell a
single engine. But, he has sold the dream to investors from
Australia to Delaware - and made himself rich along the way.
Now, he wants the U.S. industry to buy the idea. Last fall, Mayne's
Split-Cycle Technology Ltd. incorporated in Delaware and set up
an office in Chadds Ford, PA. At the University of Delaware, engineers
may study the new engine this year.
Mayne, a self-taught inventor with a checkered past, makes startling
claims for the engine. Compared with today's gasoline engines,
he says his design would produce the same power with an engine
one-twelfth the size and one-third the cost.
To Mayne, it's a technical leap like that of the micro-chip, which shrank
computers from room-size to lap-size. The engine could run
on most fuels, or a mixture or fuel and water, without creating
pollutants, Mayne says.
As in a conventional engine, Mayne's engine burns fuel to push each
piston down a cylinder. But, Mayne simplified the machinery
that connects the pistons' power to the driveshaft, which turns an auto's
wheels.
Ordinarily, piston rods connect to a heavy crankshaft. Mayne does away
with the rods and crankshaft. Instead, special tips on the
moving pistons turn small star-shaped wheels which are geared to the
driveshaft. This gets rid of a lot of moving parts and thus
friction and wasted energy from the system, he says. And, it lets pistons
do more work: In an ordinary engine, each piston fires just
once for each turn of the driveshaft( OK, as you know he means it fires
once for every two turns of the crankshaft. It is not said
whether it is a 2-cycle or 4-cycle, so it could be "per
rotation"-Ed)Mayne's design has each piston going up and down 12 times per
turn, or cycle, of the crankshaft. He calls it the "split-cycle" engine.
The simple but radical design has its believers. "The crankshaft in what
we call a normal engine was always a detriment," said Tom
Mumper of Mill Creek, a retired Hercules Inc. engineer and auto hobbyist.
Mumper holds about $20,000 worth of Split-Cycle stock. He is one of some
100 Delaware shareholders and 4,000 world wide, mostly
in Australia.
"When I saw what this fellow had done I said, Doggone, this is going to
be a very successful investment," Mumper said.
Others are reserving judgement. "The idea on which the split-cycle engine
is based sounds interesting, but that's all I can tell you,"
said Andres Szeri, head of University of Delaware's Mechanical
Engineering Dept.
"Whether it's feasible, how well it works, I have no idea at the moment,"
he said. Szeri's department may study the invention for
Split-Cycle.
In July, UD engineering professor Leonard Schwartz watched a prototype
split-cycle engine run at Mayne's Australian workshop.
"The thing doesn't violate the laws of physics. It's not a scam,"
Schwartz said. "Is it a better design than others? It may well be, or
perhaps not."
And some are skeptical. Mayne cranked up his first prototype almost three
years ago; "If it was as easy and simple as he makes out,
why hasn't he built a full scale motor?" said George Alderman, a former
race-car driver who builds racing engines at his New Castle
machine shop.
A CHECKERED PAST
Today, Rick Mayne lives in a posh Australian home and drives a costly
black Lamborghini Diablo. It's a long way from his native
New Zealand, where he labored for 22 years making roofing tile.
"Rick had a checkered history. . . . petty crime and violence," said
Andy Anderton of the New Zealand Customs Dept. Mayne
admits to scrapes with the law "most of my life. . . . Silly little
things --- driving charges, assault charges."
Assault? "I don't take any [guf] from anybody," he said.
In 1986, Mayne left New Zealand for Australia--- leaving behind a tax
bill equal to about $640,000 at today's exchange rates. He
paid the bill and a $22,000 fine in 1994, after being arrested on his
return to New Zealand for his mother's funeral.
Anderton's office said Mayne owed the tax on auto trailers he built and
sold. Mayne said the trailers were built from secondhand
parts, which he said should have been tax-exempt.
In Australia, Mayne began work on the split-cycle engine--- an idea the
auto enthusiast had carried around for ten years. He used up
his savings and lived on welfare, still drawing plans for the engine.
In 1988, Mayne teamed up with Brian Bambach to create Split-Cycle
Technology and raise funds. But, the stockbrokers wouldn't
sell the company's stock, which is not listed on any stock exchange.
So Mayne and Bambach loaded a model of the engine into a van and drove
"anywhere anyone would listen to us," Mayne said.
He calls them "Tupperware parties" --- pitches to small groups of
potential investors. And, it paid off, raising more than 2 million
in start-up funds.
Stockholders began trading the shares privately, and prices soared.
Split-Cycle stock started at about 15 cents a share at today's
rates. It's now around $2.50 per share and has reached as high as $3.25.
Mayne now holds 26 percent of the company's stock --- a stake worth $60
million or more, he said.( With no full size operational
engine? I'm in the wrong business! Ed.)
The activity caught the eye of the Australian Securities Commission. In
1992, the regulators asked the Australian federal court to
stop Mayne from selling stock in the company.
The action was settled two weeks later. Mayne mollified the commission by
agreeing to issue a prospectus with the stock offer, ASC
spokesman said.
Mayne said he is waiting for the results of a three-year government
inquest. "We were never charged with anything," he said. "We
just didn't look right with $3 million in the bank, working out of a
backyard garage."
"We were pulling a scam, according to one bureaucrat. But, now that the
engine is running everybody's happy."
In 1992, the first split-cycle sputtered to life. ---powered by a single
cylinder and bolted to a laboratory bench. Mayne envisions
engines of up to 48 cylinders each, but so far he has focused on
improving design in a series of single cylinder test models.
A four cylinder engine is in the works, he said, to be installed in a
motor-cycle early this year.
But, Split-Cycle doesn't aim to build engines. "We're not in the
manufacturing business. We plan only to license the devices to major
manufacturers," said Kenneth Hansen, from his Kennett Square, PA office.
The retired economist represents Split-Cycle in North
America.
The company incorporated its U.S. arm in Delaware last fall "because we
wanted some credibility," Mayne said.( No kidding?
Ed)The U.S. Federal Trade Commission and the Securities and Exchange
Commission report no actions against the company,
though the agencies won't talk about investigations in progress.
Part of Hansen's mission: Lining up U.S. universities to study the engine
and report back, lending strength to Split-Cycle's claims.
The University of Delaware is one of four schools that may test the
engine. In some cases Split-Cycle would pay for the studies,
Hansen said.
Mayne plans this month to build eight test engines for U.S. testing. The
University of Delaware, which carries out mechanical
studies for the aerospace industry, has proposed a six month test
program, Szeri said. The company would fund the U of D tests, but
figures haven't been agreed on, Hansen said. He hopes for agreement
within weeks.
"If the engine is all it promises to be, we would be interested in
developing it for aerospace applications," Szeri said.
He suspects manufactures in other countries will be the first to license
and develop the engines. All ready, Mayne is working on deals
to develop the engine for industrial uses in Slovakia, China and
Indonesia.
"Our engine will go into the big countries from jealousy of the Third
World producing it," he said.
Skeptics often suspect automakers of buying up new inventions just to
suppress them.
"Is he going to hit the jack-pot? Hopefully, GM isn't going to buy him
out and shelve this," said Phil Weir of Greenhill Auto Service
in Wilmington.
But, "make no mistake, no one's going to bury this," Mayne said. "Motor
companys hate each others' guts. They would be so glad
to stuff this down someone's neck."
Bruce Frank
The following is a reprint of an article I reprinted in the "Ford 3.8L
Engine & V-6 STOL Newsletter". Interesting, but I wouldn't put money on
it either. The ( Ed) lines are mine not the Wilmington Journal's.
MOTOR STATE USA?
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Bruce A Frank, Aircraft Projects, Ford 3.8L Engine & V-6 STOL Newsletter
b...@ssnet.com
Bruce Frank
v-6 engine & V-6 STOL homebuilt.
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MOTOR STATE USA?
The idea may be good but many a scam has started with a good idea.
Bruce A. Frank