HCCI New life for the ICE
Not all gasoline engines need spark plugs to ignite their fuel. In a conventional internal combustion engine (ICE) cycle, a mixture of air, spark and fuel come together over the course of four strokes to create power and move a vehicle forward. Diesel engines do not require spark plugs to ignite the mixture and produce combustion. After the pistons compress only the intake air to a very high level, combustion occurs spontaneously when fuel is then injected into the combustion chamber at the appropriate time. Then there’s the third type of ICE—the homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) engine.