Orbital engine could have eased fuel price pain The creator of a revolutionary motor says governments remain short-sighted on energy solutions, writes Amanda O'Brien
August 21, 2006 RALPH Sarich, who built a vast fortune with his revolutionary, fuel-efficient orbital engine, blames governments for the current pain at the petrol pump. From the late 1970s, Sarich had been warning of the inevitability of huge oil costs. "Hence my determination to try and provide a more efficient engine," he tells The Australian.
While he set forth to build the orbital engine, big business and successive governments dallied, refusing to embrace alternative energy sources and continuing the nation's reliance on oil.
As a result, he says, today's near-record petrol prices of about $1.35 a litre in the capital cities should really come as no surprise. And motorists' anger should be directed at governments and business.
The engine developed by Sarich -- who is ranked 31 on BRW's list of the nation's richest people, with a personal fortune of almost $800million -- is 40 per cent lighter, 60 per cent smaller and 35 per cent more efficient than standard car engines.
When it was invented in the 1970s, it seemed to fit the bill for a world worried about oil and earned him a wave of international acclaim.
Why it didn't end up in all of our cars remains hotly disputed, but the sophisticated fuel-injection and combustion system was developed for use in two-stroke engines and is used today in boat engines, motorbikes, lawn mowers and some small cars.
In his first interview in years, Sarich, now a Perth-based property magnate who shuns publicity, urges all governments to tackle the energy issue head-on. While describing this week's federal move to subsidise car conversions to liquefied petroleum gas as reasonable, he warns against seeing it as anything more than an interim step.
"What the Government needs to do is focus on long-term, sustainable solutions," he says.
"They need to get to work in earnest immediately, because it takes years to develop technology for something to be available in 15 to 20 years."
Despite the huge success of his property investment company, Cape Bouvard Investments, which is run by his son Peter, Sarich remains intensely interested in energy consumption and solutions for the future, and he is disturbed by the lack of action on the issue by governments.
"Everyone knew, even in the 70s, that the world's major oil source was in the middle of a powder-keg waiting to explode," he says.
"Unfortunately, within political circles and industry executives they were at best courteous listeners and at times absolutely dismissive."
He says his warnings, except in scientific circles, evoked responses such as "they will find more", "oil is not finite" and "the Middle East has always had conflict".
"The latter may well be true," he says. "But neither did they have the frightening access to the XXXXnal they now have that could soon wreak havoc in the region and, consequently, the world's economy."
Urging a greater priority on developing alternative energy sources, Sarich says solar and wind power, harnessing ocean movement, geothermal energy and the future development of nuclear fusion all need more attention, along with improving engine output per litre of fuel.
The orbital engine used a single triangular-shaped piston to create five combustion chambers as it orbited inside a single cylinder. Fuel consumption was dramatically reduced through a combination of complex engineering feats involving combustion clouds, gas and thermodynamic controls, and groundbreaking electronics.
Some say that, had it been fully embraced, motorists now could be using 20-25 per cent less fuel, a potential saving for families of hundreds, even thousands, of dollars a year in petrol costs.
But Sarich says the dream is not over. Thirty-four years after its invention, current fleet trials indicate some Asian light vehicles may soon emerge with an Orbital Combustion Process engine.
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