[vampyregirl]

Engineers at MIT are working with Ford Motor Co to build an Ethanol Boost engine which they hope will be in production by 2012.
According to computer models it should produce double the power of a conventional gasoline engine while increasing fuel effeciency by up to 30%.
It works by injecting small amounts of ethanol into the combustion when the engine is running at high torque. It vaporizes in the chamber, cooling the fuel and air mixture.
It will require two fuel tanks, one gasoiline and one ethanol.

Principal Research Engineer Leslie Bromberg has a project for using plasma to convert forest and household waste into hydrogen rich gas which could be run through catalysts to create CO2 neutral liquid fuel. link

[Cashmere]

Horrible news for MIT that they've fallen so far they have now taken to teaming with Ford.

Ford's solution?

Make the car more complicated and use two separate fuel storage and delivery systems.

Classic Ford stupidity.

[ROCKMAN]

Interesting vamp...thanks

[mos6507]

I thought ethanol had less energy density than gasoline.

[Dezakin]

It does, but thats not the point of this engine. The point of this is to increase the temperature differential to get better carnot efficiency... I dont think the gains will be all that high however, and there are a number of ways to do it better, like turbocompounded diesel engines.

[Tanada]

It does, but thats not the point of this engine. The point of this is to increase the temperature differential to get better carnot efficiency... I dont think the gains will be all that high however, and there are a number of ways to do it better, like turbocompounded diesel engines.

I used to work with a guy who helped his friend install water injection for racing boost. I told him, use H2O2 solution instead of water, but he was too chicken to try it.

[vampyregirl]

From what I understand, turbocompounding only increases power and fuel effeciency by 5%. i don't claim to be an expert on automotive technology but that is what i'm told. Turbocompounding in used in some big rigs but not in cars that i'm aware of

[Dezakin]

From what I understand, turbocompounding only increases power and fuel effeciency by 5%. i don't claim to be an expert on automotive technology but that is what i'm told. Turbocompounding in used in some big rigs but not in cars that i'm aware of

Yeah, its more applicable to big rigs, because its most helpful in constant power output regimes. The 5% increase number is a bit a bit misleading depending on what the total system build is like. A two stroke marine cathedral diesel will see only a marginal improvement as its exhaust temperature is quite low already, while a gasoline engine will see a quite remarkable improvement.