San Diego State Team Unveils High-Performance
Biodiesel Engine for Challenge X SUV Competition

Contact: Jason Foster
SDSU Marketing & Communications
Tel: (619) 594-2585 office; (619) 992-0772 cell
foster@mail.sdsu.edu

SAN DIEGO – (Monday, Feb. 27, 2006) – A team of students and faculty from San Diego State University's mechanical engineering department today unveiled a high-performance, low-emission biodiesel engine that they hope will propel them to victory in “Challenge X,” a General Motors-sponsored competition to develop a more environmentally friendly sport utility vehicle.

The engine is a GM 1.9-liter turbocharged common-rail diesel engine modified to run on commercially available biodiesel fuel, as well as to work in combination with a parallel electric motor. Team members say at peak power, the hybrid-electric powertrain will generate 400 horsepower, and the biodiesel engine will meet the Environmental Protection Agency’s tough new 2007 emission standards.

“We expect our engine will significantly reduce pollution, while giving our vehicle even better power and performance,” said Frank Falcone, SDSU’s Challenge X team lead.

The competition, called Challenge X: Crossover to Sustainable Mobility, is sponsored by the Department of Energy and General Motors. SDSU and 16 other universities have been selected to re-engineer a 2005 Chevrolet Equinox SUV. The competitors have three basic goals: Reduce energy consumption; decrease emissions; and maintain the performance and utility features of the stock model.

The competitors are about midway through the second year of the three-year competition. This summer, all 17 teams will put their experimental powertrains through their paces on the road at a GM testing ground in Mesa, Ariz.

“The Challenge X competition brings students and faculty into the real world of vehicle development and helps prepare a future generation of engineers so that they are better equipped to make a faster contribution to the engineering profession and the automotive industry,” said Bill Venner, GM vehicle integration engineer and mentor for the SDSU Challenge X team. Venner also presented the team with a check for more than $5,000 to support its ongoing work.

“SDSU’s team has taken a very exciting concept and turned it into an impressive power source,” Venner said. “I look forward to seeing it tested this summer.”

The first year of the competition focused on modeling, simulation and testing of the powertrain and vehicle subsystems. These systems must be integrated into to Equinox vehicle body by the end of the second year. The third year of the competition will be dedicated to refining and improving the systems to get the final vehicle “showroom ready.”

Mechanical Engineering associate professor Jim Burns, who is directing the SDSU team, said his students have tackled this competition with all of their energy.

“I’m really proud of what these students have accomplished so far,” Burns said. “But they know there’s a lot more work ahead of them. They want to win. More importantly, they know the world’s energy situation demands better technology to conserve energy and reduce pollution, and they want to be part of that solution.”

Students are using General Motors' real-world methodology for managing, designing, building and testing their Challenge X vehicle. The competition is being managed and evaluated by the Argonne National Laboratory, a DOE research and development facility.

The other teams participating in the competition are: Michigan Technological University; Mississippi State University; Ohio State University; Pennsylvania State University; Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology; Texas Tech University; University of Akron; University of California, Davis; University of Michigan; University of Tennessee; University of Texas at Austin; University of Tulsa; University of Waterloo; University of Wisconsin, Madison; Virginia Tech; and West Virginia University.

More details on SDSU’s Challenge X team are available at http://sdhybrid.com. More information on Challenge X is available at www.challengex.org.

SDSU is the oldest and largest institution of higher education in the San Diego region. Founded in 1897, SDSU offers bachelor’s degrees in 81 areas, master’s degrees in 72 and doctorates in 16. SDSU’s nearly 33,000 students participate in academic curricula distinguished by direct faculty contact and an increasingly international emphasis that prepares them for a global future. For more information, visit www.sdsu.edu.

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