Ultra-Efficient Gas Engine Passes Test

[FlyingPenguin]

http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/24701/

Transonic Combustion, a startup based in Camarillo, CA, has developed a fuel-injection system it says can improve the efficiency of gasoline engines by more than 50 percent. A test vehicle equipped with the technology gets 64 miles per gallon in highway driving, which is far better than more costly gas-electric hybrids, such as the Prius, which gets 48 miles per gallon on the highway...{cont}

[renovation]

sweet looking sport car to . not some box looking thing.

[Executioner]

Wonder what kind of power can be expected from that powerplant.

[eGoCeNTRoNiX]

I wonder how much the "additive" costs per tank that they use to "activate" the gas....

[normalicy]

Yeah, the additive got my attention too. However, it sounds more like an enhancer than a requirement. I had to be foreboding, but unless picked up by a larger corporation, it'll probably never get off the ground.

Wonder what kind of power can be expected from that powerplant.

If anything, I'd expect to see more power since the whole concept is really just creating power more efficiently. Almost anything that makes a car more powerful can also be made to make it more efficient & vice-versa. Of course, you can take it to either extreme & leave one side of the equation behind & yet still have the base technology.

[EvilHorace]

I'll bet the additive is N2O, which isn't cheap if so.

[Err]

I would like to see the tests in a standard sedan like a Malibu or Fusion rather than a sports car. I bet much of the 64mpg they're getting is due to the weight and aerodynamics. I went to their website and can't find any data. That seems really odd to me that if you had a system that produced a 50% increase over the current fuel injection, you would have data posted showing so.

[Pugsley]

If it's working like a diesel, the additive might be a lubricant for the injection pump.

[EvilHorace]

Here's what they say about that:

The company also treats the gasoline with a catalyst that "activates" it, partially oxidizing it to enhance combustion.

Sounds like N2O (an oxidizer) to me.

Then this:

The technology is one of many being developed to squeeze more efficiency out of existing engines to meet new fuel economy standards and other regulations--without making vehicles more expensive.

The idea of making any existing gas engine run w/o spark ignition, like a diesel seems strange to me too. Diesels fire w/o spark because they have a very high compression ratio compared to any gas engine thus the mixture heats by its higher compression alone (except when cold, requiring glow plugs). Guess I'll believe this IF and when I see it in production.

[normalicy]

Sounds like N2O (an oxidizer) to me.

Took the words out of my mouth. Shouldn't need a lube because it's still gasoline.

I will say that no spark does make things simpler (well in some ways).