Is There Really A Fuel Crisis?
Automotive Technical Editor &
President of Vapor Systems Technology
We’ve all paid close attention to the fact that the price of gas seems to be whatever the oil companies want to charge at any given time. It’s a simple matter of supply and demand, really. They will raise the price, and we’ll pay it. Unless demand for fossil fuel is drastically reduced, there will most likely never be a substantial drop in the price. Electric cars seem to hold some promise, although the cost of current technology makes mass production prohibitive at this time. Fuel cell technology is advancing, but breakthroughs are at best, incremental and slow in coming. Millions of cars on the road today are stuck getting 15-25 miles per gallon, and this will likely be the case for the next couple of decades. The huge success of SUV sales recently has guaranteed massive oil company profits for years to come, as these vehicles all have one thing in common: They love the taste of gasoline! It seems that there is no relief in sight for the vast driving populace. Or is there?
You’re probably wondering why I’m telling you this. The reason is because I don’t believe we have a fuel crisis, but rather a technology crisis. What I’m saying is that there is plenty of oil. The problem is that the modern automobile is stuck in the stone age when it comes to fuel system design. Sure, we’ve got computer systems to monitor everything going on under the hood in order to keep the fuel ratios at a predetermined rate. Fuel injectors precisely meter the amount of liquid fuel in order to keep the ratio perfect. Did you happen to notice I said ‘liquid fuel’? Therein lies the problem.
If you have Internet access, try doing a search for the following: 200 mpg. Depending on which search engine you use, you’ll get hundreds of hits. It won’t take much browsing to run across a man by the name of Charles N. Pogue. In the early ‘30’s, he built what was apparently the first successful fuel vaporizing carburetor. It was tested by Ford Motor Company of Canada, and by Winnepeg Motor Company. It was reported that they hung a one-pint bottle of fuel outside the car to monitor fuel usage, and then drove 25.7 miles with an in-line 8-cylinder Buick. If you do the math, that comes out to over 200 miles per gallon. The trick to his system was that the cylinders never saw a drop of liquid fuel. Instead, fuel was dispensed into an exhaust-heated spiraling passage that heated the fuel to a point where it was practically as vaporized as it could get. We know that liquid fuel won’t burn. It has to be vaporized. Pogue’s system was probably the most efficient one created at that time or since.
It must be a myth, right? Well, maybe, maybe not. Up until a few years ago, there was no effective way to gather much information about these types of systems. Then along came the Internet. If you go to the U.S. patent office web site, you can actually do a patent search online. If you are willing to spend the hours to get through the bureaucracy, you will find that there are thousands of patents that have been issued for fuel vaporizing systems. Getting a patent can cost several thousand dollars. If these systems were a myth, then who are all these people with all this money to throw away? Some of the patent owner’s names may sound familiar to you, like …Shell Oil Company, Mobil Oil, etc. Spend the time to go check it out. You can’t blame them for trying to protect their interests, can you?
Here’s another name to do an Internet search on. Type in Tom Ogle. He built a fuel system on a ‘70’s Ford V8 and got over 100 mpg. It was written up in the El Paso Times on many occasions, and the information is available by contacting the El Paso Public Library’s research department. I would include them here, but I haven’t received permission from the El Paso Times to do so. In one of the articles, Mr. Ogle states that a Shell Oil company representative asked him what he would do if someone offered him a very large sum of money (25 Million, according to the paper) for his invention. He responded that he would not be interested, he was going to sell it to the public. Unfortunately, a short time later, before being able to bring it to market, Tom Ogle died of an apparent drug and/or alcohol overdose.
There are many people doing research in the area of hi-mileage fuel systems. I’ve visited hundreds of their web sites. Some are kooks. Some are geniuses. There is much more to this than most people are aware of. One thing I do know from my own personal experience, that enormous increases are possible in the modern automobile as far as gas mileage is concerned. I have been tinkering with these systems for 20 years, and I want to encourage and inspire those of you who are inventive and entrepreneurial. I’m going to share with you some of the more useful information that I’ve gathered in the hope that you will use it to design and build your own fuel system. There are pitfalls to avoid, and the number one thing to keep in mind is SAFETY! Whatever you may end up doing, keep in mind that liquid fuel is nowhere near as volatile as vaporized fuel. If you adhere to my guidelines, you should be more than safe, since one of my main concerns is to keep myself alive long enough to enjoy the fruits of my labor.
Important things to remember when designing/building vaporizer fuel systems:
· Heat is energy. Wasted heat is wasted energy. The automobile engine has more than enough heat available to vaporize fuel. The exhaust manifold is the hottest and most readily available source. Try to incorporate it into your design as much as possible.
· Nickel has been determined to aid in the molecular breakdown of the fuel molecules. This is extremely useful, since you want vaporization to take place down to the molecular level. There are some types of stainless steel that have as high as 50% nickel content and more. I would highly recommend using them in your design. Not only will the high nickel content aid in the vaporization process, but the stainless steel will make a nearly bullet-proof component. Quality TIG welds at the joints and mating surfaces are a must.
· It’s rumored that some fuel additives are nothing more than inhibitors to prevent the breakdown of fuel molecules, thereby preventing huge increases in gas mileage by systems such as this. Do a web search on ‘catalytic cracking’ and look around a few of the web sites. You’ll learn that if fuel can be heated to over 450°F, it can be broken down to the point where additives are no longer able to keep the fuel molecules bound together. At that point, complete vaporization can take place.
· Don’t vaporize fuel until you are ready to use it! I can’t stress this enough. Having large amounts of vapors stored creates an explosive accident waiting to happen. It is much better if you can heat the fuel in liquid form, then introduce it into a superheated vaporizing chamber that connects directly to the intake manifold. That way, any vapors that are created are fed into the engine immediately and aren’t going to create a potential disaster.
· Research by some indicates that once fuel has started the vaporization process, combining it with super hot steam will cause the steam and fuel vapors to combine and form gases such as propane and methane, two highly volatile substances. Supposedly, it’s at this point that astronomical increases are realized if done in the right proportions, although I can’t vouch for this personally. Did you know that if you break water down to it’s basic molecular compounds, it releases oxygen and hydrogen, of all things? Remember the Hindenberg air ship catastrophe? It makes you wonder about the reports of people running their cars on water, doesn’t it?
· Automotive electronics do an excellent job of regulating today’s fuel systems. If you understand electronics well enough, you can use the system your car came with to regulate your device. I want to warn you though. Car computers are not cheap, and if you’re not careful about what you’re doing, you’ll let the magic smoke out of the little silver box, and then you’ll walk until you give the nice man at the dealership parts counter alot of your hard-earned money. Don’t do it if you aren’t an electronics whiz and understand exactly what you’re doing. Manual controls may not be quite as effective, but they won’t break your piggy bank if you blow it!
I hope I’ve inspired you to try and do your share to help solve our energy crisis. Take the time to do some research and pick up some pointers from other people like you and I, people who believe there’s a better mouse trap to be built out there. Above all, be safe. Don’t take any unnecessary risks, and if you’re able to build something awesome, tell others how! Don’t worry about getting rich, if you build it, they will come (the $$’s, that is)!