Posted on 02/20/2015 6:59:17 AM PST by ckilmer
PEW pew! For a week last November an internal combustion engine hummed away in a lab near Chicago. Why the excitement? This particular engine sets fire to fuel with lasers instead of spark plugs, burning fuel more efficiently than normal. Laser-fired engines could lead to cleaner, greener cars.
(Excerpt) Read more at newscientist.com ...
So how would a laser replace a spark plug that does not exist? If igniting the fuel before it reaches that point of compression was more efficient, it would already be done that way. Diesel engines and spark ignition are very mature technologies.
See post #80
In this example, it is possible. But I don't believe incomplete combustion is a problem in propane fueled engines.
Still sounds like an expensive solution in search of a problem.
Except that most shipping companies use vehicles with diesel engines. And diesel engines do not require a spark-producing ignition system
Good info thanks.
But of course that transmissive issue may also be sticky.
Typically combustion chambers end up being coated with combustion residue. How will that reduce laser light transmission?
Interesting that some drag racers cool the fuel to get more power by greater expansion inside the combustion chamber. Street rods often used an ice bath on the fuel line to increase power/speed.
Since the heat of compression ignites the fuel air mixture in a diesel, how would a diesel engine benefit from a laser-operated ignition system?
See post #80
erformance enthusiasts know that when it comes to engine air and fuel temperatures, colder is better. With that in mind we first introduced the first CO2-based fuel and air cryogenic super coolers for drag racing applications in 2003.
The CryO2™ system uses liquid carbon dioxide (CO2), stored at 80 degrees below zero (Fahrenheit), to super cool intake air, fuel, and even a vehicle’s turbo intercooler, resulting in more power and cooler engine combustion chamber temperatures.
http://www.designengineering.com/content/cryo2-cool-way-get-more-power
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Cool Fuel - Keep your fuel can in the shade, better yet, pack your fuel can in ice. (You can use the empty cooler since you and your friends drank all the beer the night before). As fuel vaporizes in the carburetor it has a cooling effect on the incoming air. Cooler air is denser and has more oxygen, the cooler the fuel is when it vaporizes the cooler the air will be and the more power it will make, plus the engine will run cooler also. In drag racing it is common practice to run the fuel line through a canister full of ice. Also the fastest drag race times are run on cold days because of the denser air.
http://www.lukesracing.com/luksr/tips.html
I doubt the complexity of adding an entire additional system to diesel engines would be an acceptable trade-off if the only benefit was being able to eliminate the catalytic converters.
A system such as this makes perfect sense for an engine with spark-induced combustion. You already need an ignition system, so replacing spark-plugs, coils, etc. with a different means of ignition does not add an entirely new system to the engine.
Nuclear would be better - except if the leak or sink.
If you want efficiency, converting fuels like natural gas into hydrogen (the cheapest and most efficient way to make hydrogn) is not the way.
This number is interesting. 1 Kilometer per liter is equivalent to 2.35214 MPG. 1 liter is 0.264 gallons and 1 km is roughly 0.6214 miles. So, to go from KM/L to MPG, the calculation is 40km x 0.6214 = 24.856 miles and one liter x 0.264 = 0.264 gallons. So you're going 24.856 miles on 0.264 gallons or 94.15 MPG.
Show me any car currently getting 94 MPG. And to increase that performance by 20%, would basically make a car capable of 113 MPG. Ain't happening. Better MPG, yes, but nothing in the 90 to 113 MPG range.
Carbon buildup is a result of unburned fuel. Burn more efficiently, have less carbon buildup.
It's not a matter of mixing the gas, it's mixing the vapor instead of the atomized gas.
I had an RX8. The rotary in it was nice. Powerful, small, but sucked for mileage and prone to leakage around the seals. The Wankel (that’s what it is at heart) needs improvement.
That sounds like an engineering challenge — provide more effective cooling at the cylinder head.
Liquids don't compress. Gases do. If the vapor could be introduced into the cylinder, the compression stroke would compress much more vapor than atomized gasoline, which would result in a much more powerful ignition.
A lot of the energy of the combustion cycle is taken up by forcing gasoline to undergo a state shift from liquid to vapor and then explode. Eliminate that phase shift and you're bound to liberate more usable energy.
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