Here's one I just read:
http://www.canada.com/montreal/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=cfe...
Some fellow is claiming he has a small device that will boost
combustion efficiency and save drivers lots of money, while reducing
emissions.
Obviously, plenty of claims have been made before, so I'm asking --
does this sound on the level?
It sounds reasonable that injecting H2 into your fuel stream can
improve the combustion. I assume that combusting the H2 in your
cylinders along with the regular fuel will boost temperature to give a
cleaner burn. Would the higher temperature harm your engine life at
all?
Since this device supposedly only holds a limited supply of distilled
H2O, KOH, etc which get periodically replaced, can I assume that it's
catalytically cracking some hydrogen from the hydrocarbon fuel stream
itself, so that hydrogen can improve the combustion of the remaining
fuel at the cylinder?
Is this somehow akin to a sort of turbocharger, but which uses hydrogen
instead of pressurized oxygen? Can it work for other things like
aircraft engines, in order to boost their operating ceiling?
Hmm, I dunno, I feel a little puzzled or suspicious of how he's
achieving a net energy gain here. Can anyone debunk any obvious
fallacies here?
Daniel J. Stern - 19 Sep 2005 14:56 GMT
Suddenly it's 1980 all over again, and the get-rich-quick crackpots with
their magical mystical "sounds reasonable" fuel saving devices are once
again crawling out of the sewers like the rats they are...
> Here's one I just read:
>
[quoted text clipped - 26 lines]
> achieving a net energy gain here. Can anyone debunk any obvious
> fallacies here?
Don Stauffer - 19 Sep 2005 15:06 GMT
> Here's one I just read:
>
[quoted text clipped - 26 lines]
> achieving a net energy gain here. Can anyone debunk any obvious
> fallacies here?
This is that old fallacy that the fuel does not burn efficiently. In
fact it is hard to combine fuel and oxygen and not have it create the
desired energy output. That is not the reason for the limited
efficiency of present engines. It is the same argument as in the other
efficiency thread still current.
HLS@nospam.nix - 19 Sep 2005 15:33 GMT
> Hmm, I dunno, I feel a little puzzled or suspicious of how he's
> achieving a net energy gain here. Can anyone debunk any obvious
> fallacies here?
If someone develops a bullshit powered engine, there will be fuel forever.
Steve W. - 19 Sep 2005 18:30 GMT
> Here's one I just read:
http://www.canada.com/montreal/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=cfe...
> Some fellow is claiming he has a small device that will boost
> combustion efficiency and save drivers lots of money, while reducing
[quoted text clipped - 22 lines]
> achieving a net energy gain here. Can anyone debunk any obvious
> fallacies here?
Yep, it is plain old water injection. One more crock of crap gimmick
item. The article in Popular Mechanics tested a unit like this. NO
difference found.
Don Stauffer - 20 Sep 2005 14:54 GMT
> Yep, it is plain old water injection. One more crock of crap gimmick
> item. The article in Popular Mechanics tested a unit like this. NO
> difference found.
While water injection produces no increase in efficiency as an add-on,
it would, if engine designed for it, allow a boost in CR that would lead
to an increase in efficiency. Supercharged WW2 aircraft engines used it
to allow a higher boost pressure. Engines would detonate on high boost,
and water injection acts as an octane booster. But engine has to be
designed from start to have the higher boost or CR to take advantage of
this.
BTW, hydrogen does not act same as water. Hydrogen has very low octane,
so injecting it is not the same as water injection, which gives same
effect as higher octane. H20 and H2 are quite different this way.
Steve W. - 21 Sep 2005 00:11 GMT
.
> > Yep, it is plain old water injection. One more crock of crap gimmick
> > item. The article in Popular Mechanics tested a unit like this. NO
[quoted text clipped - 11 lines]
> so injecting it is not the same as water injection, which gives same
> effect as higher octane. H20 and H2 are quite different this way.
All true and the key item is "if engine designed for it" It does allow
you some gains in non computer controlled vehicles. I have used it a few
times to allow higher timing advance and the use of lower octane fuel in
some engines that were designed for high octane fuel. The problem is
that in a modern computer controlled vehicle it isn't going to do much.
It might remove some carbon build up in the cylinders but that's about
it.