Here’s a good word:
Catalyst
“How can adding a small amount of something...”
When I was a yute, I played around with making my own gunpowder.
But I didn’t have Potassium Nitrate, I had a 5 lb jar of Sodium Nitrate.
To make a long story short, I experimented with various additives to get a bigger bang.
I eventually settled on a tiny almost unseeable amount of Potassium Permanganate.
It oxidizes and catalyzes the reaction.
Mum WAS NOT HAPPY about that discovery!
Yes, but in this case, we are talking about a substance that is already present in abundance in the chamber. Not a catalyst.
If this were a gasoline engine we could use a single port throttle body injection system, and place a silver and platinum wire screen under the throttle body, that would totally atomize the fuel, and see tremendous improvement. I used to do that on my gas dragsters a long time ago, and it worked well.