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Want Better Mileage? Simple Device Which Uses Electrical Field Could Boost Gas Efficiency Up To 20%
www.sciencedaily.com ^ | 9-26-2008 | Adapted from materials provided by 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 ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Technical
KEYWORDS: diesel; energy; fuel; gasoline
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To: Red Badger
HEY!

Would I lie?

61 posted on 01/02/2009 1:33:42 PM PST by jaz.357 (I binge with the lunatic fringe)
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To: Red Badger
After reading the journal reference, a few questions:

(1)”However, the main function of our device is to reduce the viscosity of the fuel as it passes the electric field.”

Simple heating will do that. Viscosity specifies measurement at a certain temp. Hot oil is less viscous than cold oil.
Which leads to:

(2) No word of temperature measurements. Some formulas, but one of the most important factors in viscosity is temp. and not a word unless I missed it.

(3) “Because our technology, developed on the new physics principle, consumes very small power and improves fuel efficiency significantly, we expect it will have wide applications on all types of internal combustion engines, present ones and future ones.”

What “new physics principle”? Reducing viscosity of the incoming fuel charge? That can be accomplished by preheating the fuel or the fuel/ air mixture as did the VW “Beetle” did over 50 years ago. Their air cooled engine used exhaust heat to heat the incoming fuel/air mixture thus eliminating the engine warm-up period.

The diagrams show a positively charged wire mesh and a negatively charged wire mesh in line with fuel flowing between the two. That appears to be nothing more than a
fuel heater, which may explain the lack of information on temperatures of fuel going into the device and temperatures of fuel coming out of the device.

Who is paying for the research and who will own the patents obtained?

Lastly, did any of the researchers have a financial interest
in the out come of the research or the company, if any, that paid for the research?

These important questions, left unanswered as they are, tell me this “research” is nothing more than a new twist on an old J.C. Whitney add-on.

62 posted on 01/02/2009 1:34:10 PM PST by count-your-change (You don't have be brilliant, not being stupid is enough.)
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To: Red Badger
Ran my car on half a tank of gas, Got 150 miles.

Ran the SAME car with Full tank, got 300 miles.

I could not believe it!

63 posted on 01/02/2009 1:41:54 PM PST by jaz.357 (I binge with the lunatic fringe)
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To: jaz.357

Watch the camera switch when this clown dries the carpet.
And rather obviously done at that!


64 posted on 01/02/2009 1:51:30 PM PST by count-your-change (You don't have be brilliant, not being stupid is enough.)
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To: yankeedame

Hey, Mythbusters tested the flux capacitor and half an hour
of air time disappeared into the past, never to return again.


65 posted on 01/02/2009 1:55:23 PM PST by count-your-change (You don't have be brilliant, not being stupid is enough.)
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To: Red Badger
no mention of modifying the computer....

man, using this device along with the acetone and my little green pills and my tornado air twister and my h2o to hydrogen converter, I'll never have to fill up again.

66 posted on 01/02/2009 1:55:31 PM PST by stylin19a ( Real Men don't declare unplayable lies)
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fill your tires to max pressure as stamped on the side-wall, drive the speedlimit and avoid fast starts and stops.

10% improvement in mpg.

And if anyone feels guilty because this post didn’t cost as much as the newfangledcontraption you may feel free to alleviate some fo your guilt by sending me the money.

Have a nice weekend


67 posted on 01/02/2009 1:58:10 PM PST by woollyone ("When the tide is low, even a shrimp has its own puddle." - Vance Havner)
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To: woollyone

“fill your tires to max pressure as stamped on the side-wall, drive the speedlimit and avoid fast starts and stops.”

Didn’t Obama, the chosen one, tell us to go out and get a tire guage too?


68 posted on 01/02/2009 2:10:46 PM PST by BILL_C (Jimmy Carter brought us Ronald Regan, Obama's contribution will be equally good. Is it Sarah?)
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To: count-your-change

After looking at the company, Save the World Air, Inc. this whole thing looks like a penny stock company trying to boost
it’s price.

I give it a HUGE Bronx cheer.


69 posted on 01/02/2009 2:22:51 PM PST by count-your-change (You don't have be brilliant, not being stupid is enough.)
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To: marktwain

When I was a small child I lost a tooth and put it under my pillow for the Tooth Fairy. I did not tell my mom, and the she was wakened the next morning by my screams of.” that Damn Tooth Fairy forgot me.”

There “aint no tooth fairy” nor is there a bolt on electronmagnetic device that will make the fuel less viscous that does not envolve heat or cracking of molecular bonds.


70 posted on 01/02/2009 4:50:53 PM PST by cpdiii (roughneck, oilfield trash and proud of it, geologist, pilot, pharmacist, iconoclast.)
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To: BILL_C

yep, came across like Jimmuh in his sweater-speech.


71 posted on 01/03/2009 6:52:20 AM PST by woollyone ("When the tide is low, even a shrimp has its own puddle." - Vance Havner)
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To: Red Badger
Not quite looks like they did some real quantitative analyses, and this process is nothing more than electrically induced depolymerization a well known and documented physical effect. The physics is pretty simple actually the smaller the fuel droplets in microns the faster they vaporize in the engine, and since every college physics student knows that only vapor can burn in an OTTO cycle engine the more vapor you have the less unburnt droplets aka fuel goes out the exhaust stream as particulate and HC emission to be oxidized by the 3 way catalytic converter. Most people don’t know that gasoline engines produce significant particulate emissions because of unburnt partially oxidized fuel in the exhaust stream this unburn fuel is the source of the increased mileage in this case. Instead of being HC emissions to be burnt out in the ceramic matrix of the catalytic converted releasing heat in the process. The smaller droplets lead to more fuel vapor, and more fuel vapor leads to more fuel actually being burn in the combustion chamber not the catalytic converter. The diesel process is a totally different combustion process that involves the injection of fuel as a liquid in a fine spray subsequent evaporation and auto-ignition of diesel vapors by the compressional temperatures in the combustion chamber here again if one can decrease the size of the initial spray droplets the evaporation rate to vapor and ignition will increase leading to less particulate matter and unburnt hydrocarbon wastes leaving the cylinder unburnt its pretty simple physics for anyone who has studied internal combustion processes. This is a PDF of the research set up with quantitative results. The current trend is for diesel injectors to go upwards of 200+ bar in pressure to get sub 10 micron droplets if one can get the same sized droplets with less pressure the cost of fuel systems becomes cheaper for the same effects. Port injected gasoline motors will benefit from the smaller droplets evaporating more completely leading to more complete combustion as is the case with gasoline direct injection they get 15% more mpg because they are using very high fuel pressures to get smaller droplets too. This does not take into account stratified or lean burn GDI engines only homogeneous stoichiometric combustion GDI engines, lean GDI can approach the diesel cycle in mean brake fuel consumption but the NOx emissions are to high to be legal without extensive SCR or Urea treatments hence no lean GDI engines that meet tier 2 bin 5 EPA regs.

http://www.rexresearch.com/tao/espray.pdf

72 posted on 01/03/2009 3:56:02 PM PST by JDinAustin (Austinite in the Big D)
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To: woollyone
Similar concept this time applying the voltage to the whole fuel air mixture, again peer review research. http://www.springerlink.com/content/p474n403r1m22377/fulltext.pdf?page=1 I’m guessing that Los Alamos is pretty legit they are taking the depolymerization a step farther and plasmizing the fuel leading to total molecular cracking to the gaseous state not just depolymerization of a liquid fuel for better atomization. http://www.lanl.gov/news/index.php/fuseaction/home.story/story_id/1519 before people whine about snake oil look at the basic science and physics, the average Otto cycle engine puts less than 20% of its fuel energy to the pavement, the other 80% is lost. It’s easy to see that room for improvement is possible even under the Law of Carnot.
73 posted on 01/03/2009 4:09:38 PM PST by JDinAustin (Austinite in the Big D)
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To: JDinAustin
grrr..

Similar concept this time applying the voltage to the whole fuel air mixture, again peer review research.

http://www.springerlink.com/content/p474n403r1m22377/fulltext.pdf?page=1

I’m guessing that Los Alamos is pretty legit they are taking the depolymerization a step farther and plasmizing the fuel leading to total molecular cracking to the gaseous state not just depolymerization of a liquid fuel for better atomization.

http://www.lanl.gov/news/index.php/fuseaction/home.story/story_id/1519

before people whine about snake oil look at the basic science and physics, the average Otto cycle engine puts less than 20% of its fuel energy to the pavement, the other 80% is lost. It’s easy to see that room for improvement is possible even under the Law of Carnot.

74 posted on 01/03/2009 4:10:39 PM PST by JDinAustin (Austinite in the Big D)
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To: Red Badger

When are you going to give up posting this crap?


75 posted on 01/03/2009 11:18:31 PM PST by anymouse (God didn't write this sitcom we call life, he's just the critic.)
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To: Red Badger

Wonder if this thingy will work with the water guy’s thingy?


76 posted on 01/03/2009 11:27:09 PM PST by citizen (Fascism: All persons, capital & activities exist to support the will & best interests of the State.)
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