Posted on 03/05/2010 12:53:51 PM PST by ConservativeMind
Transonic Combustion, based in Camarillo, CA, has developed a gasoline fuel injection system that can improve the efficiency of gasoline engines by 50 to 75 percent, beating the fuel economy of hybrid vehicles. A test vehicle the size and weight of a Toyota Prius (but without hybrid propulsion) showed 64 miles per gallon for highway driving. The company says the system can work with existing engines, and costs about as much as existing high-end fuel injection.TSCi Fuel Injection achieves lean combustion and super efficiency by running gasoline, diesel, and advanced bio-renewable fuels on modern diesel engine architectures. Supercritical fluids have unusual physical properties that Transonic is harnessing for internal combustion engine efficiency. Supercritical fuel injection facilitates short ignition delay and fast combustion, precisely controls the combustion that minimizes crevice burn and partial combustion near the cylinder walls, and prevents droplet diffusion burn. Our engine control software facilitates extremely fast combustion, enabled by advanced microprocessing technology. Our injection system can also be supplemented by advanced thermal management, exhaust gas recovery, electronic valves, and advanced combustion chamber geometries.
Recent work by Mike Cheiky, a physicist and serial inventor/entrepreneur, is focusing on raising not only the fuel mixture’s pressure but also its temperature.
Cheiky's aim, in fact, is to generate a little-known, intermediate state of matter—a so-called supercritical (SC) fluid—which he and his co-workers at Camarillo, CA-based Transonic Combustion believe could markedly increase the fuel efficiency of next-generation power plants while reducing their exhaust emissions.
Transonic’s proprietary TSCi fuel-injection systems do not produce fuel droplets as conventional fuel delivery units do, according to Mike Rocke, Vice President of Marketing and Business Development. The supercritical condition of the fuel injected into a cylinder by a TSCi system means that the fuel mixes rapidly with the intake air which enables better control of the location and timing of the combustion process.
The novel SC injection systems, which Rocke calls “almost drop-in” units, include “a GDI-type,” common-rail system that incorporates a metal-oxide catalyst that breaks fuel molecules down into simpler hydrocarbon chains, and a precision, high-speed (piezoelectric) injector whose resistance-heated pin places the fuel in a supercritical state as it enters the cylinder.
Company engineers have doubled the fuel efficiency numbers in dynamometer tests of gas engines fitted with the company’s prototype SC fuel-injection systems, Rocke said. A modified gasoline engine installed in a 3200-lb (1451-kg) test vehicle, for example, is getting 98 mpg (41.6 km/L) when running at a steady 50 mph (80 km/h) in the lab.
The 48-employee firm is finalizing a development engine for a test fleet of from 10 to 100 vehicles, while trying to find a partner with whom to manufacture and market TSCi systems by 2014.
“A supercritical fluid is basically a fourth state of matter that’s part way between a gas and liquid,” said Michael Frick, Vice President for Engineering. A substance goes supercritical when it is heated beyond a certain thermodynamic critical point so that it refuses to liquefy no matter how much pressure is applied.
SC fluids have unique properties. For a start, their density is midway between those of a liquid and gas, about half to 60% that of the liquid. On the other hand, they also feature the molecular diffusion rates of a gas and so can dissolve substances that are usually tough to place in solution.
To minimize friction losses, the Transonic engineers have steadily reduced the compression of their test engines to between 20:1 and 16:1, with the possibility of 13:1 for gasoline engines.
The present invention provides an injector-ignition fuel injection system for an internal combustion engine, comprising an ECU controlling a heated catalyzed fuel injector for heating and catalyzing a next fuel charge, wherein the ECU uses a one firing cycle look-ahead algorithm for controlling...
The present invention provides a heated catalyzed fuel injector that dispenses fuel substantially exclusively during the power stroke of an internal combustion engine, wherein ignition occurs in a fast burn zone at high fuel density such that a leading surface of the fuel is completely burned...
Ping of interest.
And it runs on water and use static electricity from the air to generate the spark for the cold fusion ignition.
I’m skeptical about some of the claims above, but interested. It sounds a lot like the technology involved in direct-injection systems out there already, but without increasing combustion ratios those are producing only incremental improvements in efficiency. Let’s see a real test engine operating in the real world against a comparable conventiona engine under the same conditions and compare fuel economy. If there’s any real promise in this I can only imagine any number of companies will be beating a path to their doors to provide funding and get a piece of it (or reserve it for their own vehicle brands). There isn’t an auto company out there today that wouldn’t like to improve efficiency by 50 to 75% without the shortcomings that come with current diesel engines (largely the expensive systems needed to deal with particulates and NOx emissions).
I was wondering about the heat factor -- whether that will adversely impact the engine materials, durability, oil, etc.
“A modified gasoline engine installed in a 3200-lb (1451-kg) test vehicle, for example, is getting 98 mpg (41.6 km/L) when running at a steady 50 mph (80 km/h) in the lab.”
Lets get it off the dyno and out on the freeway
Anyone care to guess how long it will take greenies to find a reason to oppose this?
I’m guessing 34 minutes.
I’ve come to the conclusion that the green movement will oppose any PRACTICAL new energy source or improvement in current systems.
What are the losses due to parasite power to pressurize the gasoline to supercritical pressures/temperatures?
And this was proposed in the mid 70s when we had a gas shortage. It is why today thing like over head cams and electronic fuel ignition became standard on cars.
Look the truth is they are playing the numbers on you. The one thing that is true is that if you spray a fine mist of fuel into a combustion chamber at just the right moment you will not need to worry about spark inefficiencies and missing the top of the stroke.
This will not be on any car anytime soon
"Giving mankind access to cheap energy would be like giving an idiot child a machine gun." Paul Erlich.
Yeah, I just got an urgent e-mail from Nygotu Murabe; he’s a Nigerian investments advisor, and he says he can help me get in on this before “certain corrupt petrochemical corporatations” try to disuade “smart people like yourself” from getting involved. What do you think?
Erlich is among the most famously wrong individuals to ever write a book.
Not to worry, the cost of fuel will increase 50 - 75% also.
That's why so much jet fuel went up refinery flares after 911, with so many jets off, pipeline and storage facilities soon ran out of room .
It's about production balance, that's the bottom line for overall fleet MPG.
It' still a good idea, but needs to be introduced slowly (to maintain balance).
Ford should consider bringing Transonic into itself to test feasibility and if feasible, to market in their varying car lines.
![](http://images.google.com/images?q=tbn:R8sR7daexSBGmM:www.ted-kyte.com/3D/Pictures/Spark%2520Plug.jpg")
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.....
Now that really cheeses me off! Murabe promissed I would be his sole investor. I just new I couldn’t trust him. Guess I’ll settle for 50%
Kewl! Say, could you loan me some money? Murabe says I’m very, very trustworthy!!
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