New Fuel-Injection Shock Treatment Increases Mileage
Existing diesel and gasoline engines could get up to a 10% boost in fuel efficiency from an electrifying add-on.
Researchers at Temple University in Philadelphia have developed an improved fuel-injection system that is simple and affordable enough to use in existing cars. Through a strong electric charge to fuel on its way to the engine’s cylinders, scientists were able to increase the fuel efficiency of a Mercedes-Benz 300D from 32 to 38 mpg. If all the autos the United States installed the apparatus, over 300 million barrels of gasoline and about 150 million barrels of diesel could be saved.
- » See also: Factory Five Electric ‘33 Ford Roadster Debuts at SEMA
- » Get Gas 2.0 by RSS or sign up by email.
The device makes the fuel 10% thinner, allowing it to break into smaller droplets. Fuel burns from the outside of each molecule, where the oxygen makes contact, so smaller drops with higher total surface area burn quicker and more efficiently. The device electrically charges the gas molecules to cause them to stick together, lowering total friction and increasing the fluidity.
“Making the droplets smaller has been a goal for a while,” said Rongjia Tao, the scientist who led the research. “Of course they didn’t consider using an electric field, they talked about using very high pressure.”
According to Tao, the device would currently come at a cost of $50 per-piston. Temple University holds the patent and says they’ve already been contacted by multiple car manufacturers regarding potential licensing.
Photo Credit: Daviddesign on Flickr under Creative Commons License.
This does sound like snake oil, but if it works it could be good. One wonders if his lab setup got the energy from the alternator (IE the fuel he’s burning) or a bench supply.
Also, smaller droplets, while not affecting the fuel/air ratio as was mentioned above, will burn faster, making for a more explosive combustion than normal. This could cause excessive wear, higher peak pressure/temperature and affect the tuning of the engine. It may not be a good thing to do to an engine that was not designed for this.
Not being a chemist, or physicist, i will pose my opinion/observation in question form (so as not to appear totally naive).
Wouldn’t an electrical charge through a molecule cause the atoms within to draw a little closer, thus making the droplets smaller and less frictional?
Wouldn’t a more thorough burn increase combustion chamber pressure, resulting in higher fuel efficiency in lower octane fuels? As well as increase acceleration response and horsepower and/or low end torque?
Since an internal combustion engine is essentially an air pump, wouldn’t increasing to air part of the fuel air ratio to interact with the fuel part of the ratio be a good thing?
Being a former Air Force jet engine mechanic, I am familiar with the importance of efficient fuel atomization. Bad atomization can kill a jet engine. So it only stands to reason the more efficient atomization can only be good for a piston engine. Am I wrong?
As to the question of increased chamber temperatures “melting” cylinder heads, or whatever. I believe that to be highly unlikely. Carbon deposits increase head and piston temperatures because they retain heat and retard the heat transfer capacity of the metal. These deposits are created by the inherent incomplete burning of petroleum based fuels and the additives in them. More thorough burning minimizes these deposits and allows the cooling jackets to do their job more efficiently. Am I missing something?
Another recently developed product that achieves higher chamber pressures and more thorough burn is the “pulse plug”, developed in conjunction with Sandia Laboratories. It deliver, via built in capacitors, 1 MILLION watts of energy per firing, as opposed to the average 500 watts. A friend installed them in his 2007 Xterra and his highway mileage jumped from 17 to 24. He has had them for 2 months and has ahd NO problem with higher than normal temperatures. He has, however, had to lighten up on the gas pedal, due to an increased rate of acceleration.
I’m ordering mine next month. (They cost $25 a piece and I have a V8, as well as a kid in college!)
Am I nuts?
Nice change to hear American “Motor Heads” chawing over the diesel notion again, just don’t let GM build them this time you try them, stick to Mercedes and VW, the folks with “Know How”! Hyundai has a new 2 L diesel coming soon, perhaps not to America though due to the huge anti-diesel sentiment in the market place and the diesel rip off at the pumps. Just dream with me for a moment - if every American vehicle on the road were replaced mystically overnight with diesel engined machines, 40% less oil would be used,the next day, simply because the engine design is that much more efficient! Now, go to a Diesel/Prius format for another whopping, and proven 20% boost. goddammit! I think I solved the current crisis! Now, dream on a bit further, and make a law that only bio-diesel from Algae can be used on the roads, domestic algae, bio-diesel! Holy shvt! watch the jobs open up to produce algae based bio-diesel! Now we have cars with range, jobs, and we don’t have to pay off the OPEC folks with our sons and daughters in their dirty little religious wars, or even pay the blackmail prices they demand for oil! Just for Hellery, SEE: The University of New Hampshire is exploring ways of forced production of algae for biodiesel that is yielding 10,000 gallons per acre and uses salty water. Their calculations show that a tiny area of the Sonoran desert in New Mexico (about 9%) is enough area to produce all of the transportation fuel in the U.S. using their production techniques. Already, one company is experimenting with algae production stations at a power plant to capture the CO2 from the exhaust and use it to make algae for biodiesel” http://www.itsgood4.us/biodiesel.htm
AND:http://www.nextenergynews.com/news1/next-energy-news12.17c.html