Electronic Mileage Increase
Vehicle mileage could possibly be increased by up to 20 percent by an electric field, reports Charles Q. Choi, on the 42nd page of the December issue of Scientific American. A well documented effect of an electric field on liquids is to reduce viscosity. A reduction in fuel viscosity makes it so smaller droplets can be injected, allowing for more efficient, complete, combustion. The researchers, from Temple University, utilized this effect by modifying the fuel delivery system of a diesel engine, affixing an “electrically charged tube” to the fuel line just prior to the injectors. This setup was road tested, and the researchers found that the device used less than 0.1 watt, and increased fuel economy by 6 miles per gallon (MPG), from 32 MPG to 38 MPG.
This device has obvious benefits, such as increase profit margins for large businesses and greater fuel economy in personal vehicles, and can be diversified to most all types of internal combustion engines. However it does have detractions, such as greater dependency on oil, since there will be less incentive to invent new technology that does not use oil. I think that this will have short-term benefits, which outweigh the possible long-run detractor trouble.
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How much would this cost to implement in a normal I-4 engine car, do the researchers not know yet do to the experimental factor. They must have at least an estimate, obviously it would be worth whatever one paid (up to a point of course). Also, there is the concern that the an oil company would buy the patent and not let it be put to use. Overall this seems to me to be a very good and implementable improvement, but not a solution.
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