Orbital air-assisted injection technology is being utilised on the new all-alloy GM/Powertrain-developed V6 that is currently being tweaked by Alfa Romeo engineers to replace the current long-serving V6 'family'. No final decision on use has yet been made, but insiders regard the possibility as 'strong'.

Orbital uses a a very small air compressor to generate a fine spray of fuel ( 8 microns ) into the combustion chamber. Orbitals proprietary air injector is coupled with a standard fuel injector to accomplish that feat.

ORBITAL

Orbital is an Australian company that specializes in all aspects of the internal combustion engine, has been in business for over 30 years and has 140 inventions covered by over 1,000 patents worldwide.

Orbital has already licensed their proprietary "Orbital Combustion Process" (OCP) to General Motors, Ford, Fiat, Texmaco (Indonesia), Tohatsu Marine (JP), Bombardier/Rotax, Aprilia, Peugeot Motorcycles, Piaggio/Vespa, Kymco Motorcycles (Taiwan), Siemens/VDO Automotive, and Delphi Corp. Orbital's direct injection systems are found in Mercury Marine Optimax outboards, Tohatsu outboards (tldi) engines, Bombardier Sea Doo PWCs, Bombardier (jet) sport boats, Aprilia "ditech" scooters, Peugeot "tsdi" scooters and Piaggio "Pure Jet" scooters.

Each of these products have allowed the manufactuers to meet increasing stringent emissions requirements while simultaneously giving unprecedented improvements in fuel economy on the order of 40%.
 
Orbital’s system works on both 2-stroke and 4-stroke gasoline powered engines, ranging from a 50cc scooter to GM's 300hp XV8 concept engine. Mercury also recently began providing its Optimax engines to the US military for use with JP5 fuel.

ORBITAL'S AUTOMOTIVE BACKGROUND

During the early 90's Orbital began work on DI for auto applications. In 1997 Siemens Automotive and Orbital started a joint venture called Synerject to design, develop, manufacture and supply an entire fuel rail assembly incorporating Orbital’s patented air injector. At this time Synerject is the systems integrator and supplier for all the products mentioned above.

In 1998 Mercedes-Benz revealed, in a joint press release with Orbital and Siemens that they’d been working for two years developing an Orbital Combustion Process system for Mercedes application. That implementation did not take place because of Mercedes’ insistence on an injector location that did not produce the fuel economy gains envisioned. However, in 1999 Mercedes gave a presentation at the Vienna Motor Symposium highlighting Orbital’s system stating that "the Orbital’s spray guided, air assisted system showed better fuel economy and emissions control than any competing system".

1999 saw Renault state that they were looking at two approaches to DI, and air assisted was one of them. Orbital had the only viable air assisted DI system available, both then and now.

In 2000 Saab, wholly owned by GM, signed a technology alliance with Orbital and Delphi signed a co-development agreement with Orbital. 2001 was an even busier year for Orbital. Delphi signed a license agreement to produce and sell Orbiter’s system. At that year’s Paris motor show Saab displayed their Saab Combustion Control system that specifically included Orbital’s direct injection, calling the whole system “SCC”. 

Also during 2001, GM and Orbital, in a joint program announced that they achieved ULEV 2 emissions using Orbital’s system while achieving a 12% fuel economy gain even with high sulphur fuel. In Europe an Orbital demonstrator vehicle achieved a 20% fuel economy gain while meeting EURO 4 due in 2005. That was achieved with low sulphur fuel.
 
GM in 2001 showcased their concept XV8 engine in the Opel Signum 2, the engine designed for and to have Orbital’s system in it. GM has since shown the engine in a Saab 9-5,and there are plans for an Alfa Romeo application. Besides the entire GM group, Orbital is still rumored to be working closely with Mercedes, Renault and Ford. 

Furthermore, Delphi is now only offering Orbital's system as its DI solution, they seem to have given up on their HPDI system for the time being.

ORBITAL & ALFA ROMEO

Based on the brand-new "Premium" platform, developed with GM & Saab, the Alfa Romeo 158 will offer two and four wheel drive options. The suspension will be double 
wishbone at the front with a highly revised multi-link set-up at the rear. The 158 will use the new family of all-alloy V6 engines being developed by GM 
at present. These will include 2.8 & 3.2-litre versions while a 300 bhp 2.0 JTS unit will utilize a twin-turbo set-up"

The dimensionally larger 156-replacement is testing at present with the new GM HFV6 that has PFI, DI, and Turbo capability designed into the engine, possibly to be tagged as the 'Electron' unit. Orbital's air-assisted direct injection system could make its first production application in this engine if the ongoing trials prove successful.