Forward with technology

A wide variety of presentations, from an equally wide span of presenters, gave all those present plenty of food for thought as well as hard information about how the forthcoming emissions legislation and the inevitable rise in fuel prices will affect us all.

One of the interesting results of the rapid drive for low emissions is the way that marine engine technology has fast changed from being a conservative, slow-moving branch of engineering to a forum for novel ideas and new thinking. There are several small companies in the field, looking at the basics of combustion technology and re-thinking the principles to produce high-efficiency, clean engines, designed to achieve strict emissions limits without recourse to complex and expensive ‘add-ons’. Such ideas may have been dismissed a few years ago as impractical, but in the current climate they are surely worthy of consideration, and a conference such as Propulsion & Emissions provides the ideal forum in which they can be presented and discussed.

One such presentation came from Kazimierz Holubowicz, otherwise known as Kaz Technologies, a Polish-born independent inventor with a number of novel ideas to his credit. One of these is his ‘gun engine’ in which the combustion process closely mirrors the detonation and firing of a gun, with a secondary piston replicating the bullet. The system is claimed to overcome many of the inefficiencies inherent in the Diesel engine, and the principles have been successfully demonstrated at the Utah Valley State College in the USA with a converted small engine. The facts and figures appear plausible, and the inventor’s infectious enthusiasm shone through. It was perhaps surprising that the paper did not attract more questions from the floor – maybe this showed that the experts present felt this could be something worthy of further development. The strength of an event like Propulsion & Emissions is surely the way that the ‘minnows’ can present their ideas on an equal footing to the likes of MAN and Wärtsilä, who followed Kaz in the programme. Holubowicz has more ideas in the pipeline, including a marine propulsion system with potential to reduce drag by 90%. We have not heard the last of him.