[Newsbot]

Title: Ultra-Efficient Gas Engine Passes Test
Category: Tech
Posted By: Hyack
Date: 2010-03-08 20:11:31

[GreenTiger]

This is the car we should be producing en mass for two reasons: it will help reduce carbon emmissions drasticly, and it will cut our dependance on mid east oil.

There is an hybrid car with a gas engine that is mostly an electric with a small gasoline engine that charges the battery. I can't think of the name of it, but that is nneat as well.

[Public_Domain]

[ShepherdsDog]

meh.....my digestive system is far more efficient at producing and passing gas.

[Robair]

They are going to have to build much heavier (stronger) engine blocks to burn gas like diesel. No spark, just combustion due to the high temp of compression.

Should make for some fast sports cars, a lot more power out of a smaller package!

Oh yea, the fuel efficiency thing is good too...

[wildrosegirl]

And something in a 4x4 version with a box. Can't see getting an elk in the back of that thing.

[Hyack]

wildrosegirl wildrosegirl:

And something in a 4x4 version with a box. Can't see getting an elk in the back of that thing.

Yeah, but you can still fit a nice beaver, fox or cougar in the front seat....

[Bruce_the_vii]

This sounds like a diesel, higher compression so more thermal efficiency. You could just buy a diesel. I read half the auto's in Europe are diesel already. You get about 25% more diesel out of a barrel of oil than gasoline. Nifty invention but not a money spinner.

[andyt]

Robair Robair:

They are going to have to build much heavier (stronger) engine blocks to burn gas like diesel. No spark, just combustion due to the high temp of compression.

Should make for some fast sports cars, a lot more power out of a smaller package!

Oh yea, the fuel efficiency thing is good too...

Diesel requires stronger engine blocks because a diesel engine uses a much higher compression ratio to ignite the fuel. It sounds like this system doesn't need those higher compression ratios.

[andyt]

GreenTiger GreenTiger:

There is an hybrid car with a gas engine that is mostly an electric with a small gasoline engine that charges the battery. I can't think of the name of it, but that is nneat as well.

If all the gas engine does is charge the battery, why not just use a gas-electric, or better diesel electric system like our trains do? The carbon fuel engine creates the electricity that runs the electric motor(s). You could have the motors driving the wheels directly, wouldn't need a transmission, drive shafts etc.

[Robair]

andyt andyt:

Robair Robair:

They are going to have to build much heavier (stronger) engine blocks to burn gas like diesel. No spark, just combustion due to the high temp of compression.

Should make for some fast sports cars, a lot more power out of a smaller package!

Oh yea, the fuel efficiency thing is good too...

Diesel requires stronger engine blocks because a diesel engine uses a much higher compression ratio to ignite the fuel. It sounds like this system doesn't need those higher compression ratios.

Hmmm, you are literate. Your problem must be comprehension.

[andyt]

Robair Robair:

Hmmm, you are literate. Your problem must be comprehension.

$1:

it uses supercritical fluids and doesn't require a spark to ignite the fuel. The supercritical fluid mixes quickly with air when it's injected into the cylinder.

Once the fuel is injected into the piston, the heat and pressure are enough to cause the fuel to combust without a spark (similar to what happens in diesel engines),

Similar doesn't mean identical. I take from this article that the supercritical, heated, fuel ignites very easily, and so won't need super high compression. If you know better, let us know.

$1:

The novel SC injection systems, which Rocke calls “almost drop-in” units, include “a GDI-type,” common-rail system that incorporates a metal-oxide catalyst that breaks fuel molecules down into simpler hydrocarbon chains, and a precision, high-speed (piezoelectric) injector whose resistance-heated pin places the fuel in a supercritical state as it enters the cylinder.

Company engineers have doubled the fuel efficiency numbers in dynamometer tests of gas engines fitted with the company’s prototype SC fuel-injection systems, Rocke said. A modified gasoline engine installed in a 3200-lb (1451-kg) test vehicle, for example, is getting 98 mpg (41.6 km/L) when running at a steady 50 mph (80 km/h) in the lab.

Do you think they modified the engine by giving it a diesel-like block? Wouldn't that just be a diesel engine modified to run on gasoline?

See, not only literate, but I have reasoning skills too.

[Wullu]

An Accent gets better highway mileage (51) than the Prius and at a MUCH smaller price tag.

[Robair]

andyt andyt:

Robair Robair:

Hmmm, you are literate. Your problem must be comprehension.

$1:

it uses supercritical fluids and doesn't require a spark to ignite the fuel. The supercritical fluid mixes quickly with air when it's injected into the cylinder.

Once the fuel is injected into the piston, the heat and pressure are enough to cause the fuel to combust without a spark (similar to what happens in diesel engines),

Similar doesn't mean identical. I take from this article that the supercritical, heated, fuel ignites very easily, and so won't need super high compression. If you know better, let us know.

$1:

The novel SC injection systems, which Rocke calls “almost drop-in” units, include “a GDI-type,” common-rail system that incorporates a metal-oxide catalyst that breaks fuel molecules down into simpler hydrocarbon chains, and a precision, high-speed (piezoelectric) injector whose resistance-heated pin places the fuel in a supercritical state as it enters the cylinder.

Company engineers have doubled the fuel efficiency numbers in dynamometer tests of gas engines fitted with the company’s prototype SC fuel-injection systems, Rocke said. A modified gasoline engine installed in a 3200-lb (1451-kg) test vehicle, for example, is getting 98 mpg (41.6 km/L) when running at a steady 50 mph (80 km/h) in the lab.

Do you think they modified the engine by giving it a diesel-like block? Wouldn't that just be a diesel engine modified to run on gasoline?

See, not only literate, but I have reasoning skills too.

$1:

One key question is the impact the high pressures and temperatures will have on how long the engine lasts, Rocke says.

[poquas]

$1:

The company also treats the gasoline with a catalyst that "activates" it, partially oxidizing it to enhance combustion.

First of all wouldn’t this make the gas much more volatile?

Where is it treated, in the storage tanks at the gas station or in the vehicle?

What is the catalyst?