The next 10 years will be very interesting. Gasoline engines are slowly raising compression and efficiency. For example, Volkswagen released a prototype engine they call CCS, Combined combustion system. It is based off the TDI engine but runs off gasoline. It combines the "homogeneous combustion and low nitrous oxide emissions of a typical small capacity petrol powerplant with the self ignition and low fuel consumption properties of a modern day diesel – the aim being to combine the best attributes of each"
They start the combustion a lot earlier than TDC vs. a diesel but use no spark plug. The earlier injection and combustion helps reduce the NOx and particulate emissions in diesels. Attached are some pictures of the CCS engine. Other manufacturers call it HCCI.
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