64 miles per gallon fuel-injection system - in testing by 3 automakers

[bik0]

Backed by big money venture capital plus testing at 3 automakers... could be in 2014 cars...

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.

The key is heating and pressurizing gasoline before injecting it into the combustion chamber, says Mike Rocke, Transonic's vice president of business development. This puts it into a supercritical state that allows for very fast and clean combustion, which in turn decreases the amount of fuel needed to propel a vehicle. The company also treats the gasoline with a catalyst that "activates" it, partially oxidizing it to enhance combustion.

The company has demonstrated the technology in its own test engine, and says it is currently testing it with three automakers. One key question is the impact the high pressures and temperatures will have on how long the engine lasts, Rocke says. The company, which is supported by venture-capital investments from Venrock and Khosla Ventures, plans to manufacture its system itself, rather than licensing the technology. It plans to build its first factory in 2013, and to introduce the technology into production cars by 2014.

http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/24701/?nlid=2798&a=f

[thereismore]

1. I always thought we could get more out of gasoline. High pressures have been dealt with

in diesel engines. I don't know about high temperatures or chemical wear on the components.

[liberal N proud]

2. About time

I knew a college professor who had a Ford F150 getting 70 mpg with a carburetor in 1980. Amazingly the Ford disappeared and the program at the college was discontinued.

Wasn't long and fuel injection was the method of dispensing fuel.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

10. Seen those stories for years...never seen one that was real

[liberal N proud]

11. I was is college at the time and knew the Professor

Took classes from him.
I know that those stories are always disputed. That I believe, is because they shutdown any program that did it.
As I stated, they took the truck, shut down the Industrial Technology department and the Professor was forced to retire early.

He never talked about it after that that I know of. Maybe he was told to keep his mouth shut or risk losing his pension or something. I don't know.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

12. What was his field?

With the engine technology where it was at that time, the state of that era's running gear, and the realities of the Carnot Cycle, that does not sound credible. The math just doesn't work.

[TheWraith]

3. Just to note, "in testing" doesn't mean a whole lot.

A company would have to be idiotic not to at least test a system that claimed this kind of advantage. Whether it works is another thing entirely. That said, I suspect that series-hybrid drives will still be cheaper for the same fuel efficiency.

[kestrel91316]

4. Wonderful. But they'll sell the cars with it for $40k.

[OnlinePoker]

7. Innovation always rolls out in higher end models first.

Look at airbags...GM introduced them as options in full-sized Buicks, Caddies, and Olds in 1974. It wasn't until the 90's they became standard equipment in most vehicles.

[safeinOhio]

5. Ford has a 63 mpg diesel festiva

that it sells in Europe but not here. Pisses me off. They've said they'd have to sell at least 350,000 here to break even.

[TheWraith]

8. That's because of the redesign issues.

EU crash testing standards aren't as stringent as US ones are. (Not as many highways, so fewer high speed crashes to guard against.) So to be street-legal in the US, they'd have to beef up the frame and crumple zones, which means nasty engineering costs, retesting, and more weight which would lower the efficiency of the vehicle. Plus they're probably talking about imperial gallons, which are 20% larger than US gallons, so that would mean the unaltered vehicle would get 52 MPG here, and probably more like 42 by the time they were finished with the rebuild.

[oldhippie]

9. "EU crash testing standards aren't as stringent as US ones are. (Not as many highways, ..."

"EU crash testing standards aren't as stringent as US ones are. (Not as many highways, so fewer high speed crashes to guard against.)"

Huh? Not as many highways? Fewer high speed crashes? You been in Germany lately? On the Autobahns? I've driven several thousand miles around Germany in the last few years. There are highways all over. And the average cruising speed is 80-100 MPH. Many drive faster.

EU crash testing standards may be less stringent than ours, but it ain't because they have fewer highways and low speeds.

[TheWraith]

14. We still have nearly twice as much highway per capita as Germany.

But they have a greater rate of fatal accidents per highway kilometer, and the ratio of fatal highway crashes to non-fatal ones is better here than it is there. Although it's true that Germany has a pretty safe highway system, all things considered.

[Turbineguy]

6. By taking the vaporization phase out of the combustion chamber

they would improve efficiency dramatically. But spark ignition would then become impossible. The trick is still to properly mix the fuel and air given the short ignition and combustion time (0.0004167 seconds to ignite at 2500 rpm).

Normal fuel injection atomizes fuel into droplets of varying sizes which then start to vaporize and burn as they penetrate into the combustion chamber (looking much like a bunch of tiny comets with a trail of burning gas). The dense air impedes velocity and thus penetration. Therefore larger droplets travel farther (on the other hand, you do not want the droplets to reach the cylinder walls).

The difficulty in mixing is to have a uniform mixture rather than pockets of rich and lean mixtures. Combustion chambers are shaped to help this process.

[bik0]

13. Video... Ultra-Efficient Gas Engine Passes Test

Mike Rocke explains how his company, Transonic Combustion, improves the efficiency of gasoline engines by 50 to 75 percent.

http://www.technologyreview.com/video/?vid=535