Prototype of the fuel device. (Credit: Image courtesy of Temple University)
Posted on 01/02/2009 11:37:56 AM PST by Red Badger
With the high cost of gasoline and diesel fuel impacting costs for automobiles, trucks, buses and the overall economy, a Temple University physics professor has developed a simple device which could dramatically improve fuel efficiency as much as 20 percent.
According to Rongjia Tao, Chair of Temple's Physics Department, the small device consists of an electrically charged tube that can be attached to the fuel line of a car's engine near the fuel injector. With the use of a power supply from the vehicle's battery, the device creates an electric field that thins fuel, or reduces its viscosity, so that smaller droplets are injected into the engine. That leads to more efficient and cleaner combustion than a standard fuel injector, he says.
Six months of road testing in a diesel-powered Mercedes-Benz automobile showed that the device increased highway fuel from 32 miles per gallon to 38 mpg, a 20 percent boost, and a 12-15 percent gain in city driving.
The results of the laboratory and road tests verifying that this simple device can boost gas mileage.
"We expect the device will have wide applications on all types of internal combustion engines, present ones and future ones," Tao wrote in the study published in Energy & Fuels.
Further improvements in the device could lead to even better mileage, he suggests, and cited engines powered by gasoline, biodiesel, and kerosene as having potential use of the device.
Temple has applied for a patent on this technology, which has been licensed to California-based Save The World Air, Inc., an environmentally conscientious enterprise focused on the design, development, and commercialization of revolutionary technologies targeted at reducing emissions from internal combustion engines.
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencedaily.com ...
Prototype of the fuel device. (Credit: Image courtesy of Temple University)
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Rest In Peace, old friend, your work is finished.....
If you want ON or OFF the DIESEL ”KnOcK” LIST just FReepmail me.....
This is a fairly HIGH VOLUME ping list on some days.....
Sounds like another something for nothing scheme.
Hmmm. Seen it all already. Magnets, special things that mix more air in, things that take air out,etc. etc. Seen so much, it will take much convincing to get me to even believe this one...
If it works, one wonders why the existing injection system wasn't better optimized for droplet size? So it probably doesn't.
I don’t think so, this time. It seems to make sense...........
well, the guy’s a professor and I assume the article was in a peer-reviewed journal. So while that’s not an iron clad guarantee, it does give it a little more credibility than if it was some garage tinkerer making the claim.
Not really. I’ve heard, in the past, that heating fuel prior to it entering the system will increas effeciency also. Actually, it’s a fairly simple and inexpensive system to play with.
Probably a heating element to thin the fuel, a surfactant might do as well.
Ummm..., some of these kinds of things are mighty suspicious. I’m not saying that this is — but it’s sorta in the same league as with others...
I wouldn't buy one just for that!
The method does not change the temperature of the crude oil; instead, it temporary aggregates paraffin particles or asphaltene particles inside the crude oil into large ones. This particle aggregation changes the rheological property of the crude oil and leads to the viscosity reduction. While this viscosity reduction is not permanent, it is suitable for many important applications, such as oil transport via deepwater pipelines, since it lasts for several hours and is repeatable.
Finally, my very own flux capacitor. 1954 here I come!
Since this comes from a university, and not from some guy on a late night infomercial for $19.95 +S&H, I think it may have some credence.......
Herm, I’ve seen these before. Might as well be selling or researching “snake oil.”
This does not make much sense. Modern cars have one fuel injector per cylinder. Fuel is metered into the cylinder on the pistons downstroke, instantly vaporizing the fuel in the combustion chamber as it passes though the injector's atomizer nozzle.
I won't believe it til I see him sell it on TV!..........
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