linewarbr wrote:
Likely not.
At least with just a quick glance at the web page. This idea of 'premixing fuel and air' as the holy grail of high mileage is nothing new. They were talking about this kind of stuff back in the days when everyone had carbeurators.
Also, 53 mpg. 53 mpg based on... what? There are some standard internal combustion engines out there already getting in excess of 40mpg. So when they say 53mpg, what's that an improvement over? Point being, are they claiming that they can improve what would normally be a 15mpg engine and turn it into a 53mpg engine? I'm highly skeptical. It's possible they could turn a 48 mpg engine and turn it into a 53 mpg engine. That would be more realistic.
Plus, in the PDF, I'm a little concerned with the phrase, "reduces greenhouse emissions" as if that were an entirely discreet effect with this technology.
When you burn x gallons of gasoline you get x lbs of carbon dioxide emissions. There is no technology invented that will allow you to burn x gallons of gasoline with less carbon dioxide emissions. The way to reduce your CO2 emissions is to burn less gas. As a point of fact, this was one of the legal complaints against some of the new state specific emissions standards where they tried to regulate the car companies into putting out 'less co2'. The argument from the car companies was that there is no trap or technology to have a standard car produce less co2. The only way to achieve this is to burn less fuel. And as such, fuel economy is regulated by the EPA, full stop.
So when I hear "engineering types" make this claim, I get nervous.
EDIT: I've read more of the PDF, and they are basing this test technology on a Honda Civic engine. It just so happens that the Honda civic engines are some of the highest mileage standard infernal combustion engines around, so now their mpg improvements look a little more realistic to me. They essentially took a 43 mpg engine and claimed to have turned it into a 53 mpg engine. This is a much more realistic improvement. Still impressive, but much more realistic. They also only saw a 4mpg improvement with city driving. So I'll admit this is looking much more intriguing than it did when I first glanced at the website.
Bottom line: if someone comes to you claiming they improved their gas mileage by 100% by making novel adjustements to their engine, you may laugh at them. If they claim increasing it by 2 or 3 mpg, then you might listen to their story.
EDIT2: And I take back everything I accused them of with their claims of reduced CO2. From the paper:
CO2 reduction is accomplished by improving fuel economy.
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