RECIPROCATING ENGINES: A GLOBAL COMPARATIVE STUDY AS A SOURCE OF DISTRIBUTED POWER GENERATION.

The article explores the impact of reciprocating engines on global distributed power-generation market by identifying and comparing the approximate number of these types of internal combustion engines being used for distributed power generation in different regions of the world from 1978 to 2003. The authors also describe reciprocating engines and its uses in the distributed power generation market as well as its two basic categories: spark ignition engines and compression ignition engines. Data analysis suggests that the largest estimated number of reciprocating engines operating in 2003 can be found in North America with 24, 879 engines. Analysis also reveals that most sales of reciprocating engines happened between 2001 to 2002 in all the classified regions of the world.