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- By far the most popular choice is to simply heat the fuel. There
are 3 different ways this is accomplished:
- Electric heating elements. The benefit of
this method is that you can regulate the amount of heat being
applied to the fuel almost instantly from inside the car. The
drawbacks are that you can burn up heating elements, and if you were
to short-circuit one that has fuel going past it, there is the
potential for a loud noise, a lot of heat, and of course, flames.
That could be BAD :( Also, it takes between 20 and 40
amps to keep these elements hot enough to be effective. That puts an
incredible strain on your car's charging system over the course of
time.
- Coolant heating. Benefit - Free heat!
Drawbacks - quite a few. First, a modern cooling system reaches a
max temperature somewhere around 220°F. This will
vaporize the lighter hydrocarbon ends, but will not begin to touch
those heavy hydrocarbons blended into the fuel to give the engine a
nice, smooth burn in the cylinders. Too many light molecules can
lead to detonation and engine damage, too many heavy ones can cause
hard cold starts among other things. Also, it takes at least several
minutes to get up to operating temperature, and unfortunately that
is exactly the time when a vapor system is needed most. Cold starts
are when engine wear occurs most, because liquid fuel acts as a
scouring agent, washing down cylinder walls and eventually creating
blowby. One last issue is that heat taken from the engine and put
into the fuel can prevent the engine from reaching it's intended
operating temperature, thereby keeping a modern engine management
computer from switching to 'closed loop' mode. This simply keeps the
car running in a less efficient backup mode, which in itself can
eventually cause engine wear and emissions component failures.
- Exhaust heating. Easily the
favorite choice of many inventors. A lot of benefits. It's free
energy that would otherwise be wasted right out the tailpipe. You
can have over 500°F within 15
seconds after a sub-zero cold start, and can reach over 1000°F
within a minute. These temperatures can easily 'crack' the fuel down
to it's basic molecules. Many systems using this method have had
incredible success at increasing mileage. See
10 Vaporizer Examples. The
disadvantage of systems using exhaust heat is that it's difficult to
regulate the exact temperature of your vaporizer. Fuel can actually
reach what is called 'auto-ignition' temperature, where it combusts
on it's own without a spark. That occurs somewhere just below 500°F
at atmospheric pressure. However, if the fuel is heated while it's
under vacuum, the auto-ignition temperature goes way up. Now if the fuel
auto-ignites and doesn't have any oxygen to sustain combustion, it
simply reverts back to a liquid, thereby defeating the purpose. One
last problem I've experienced is that at 1000°F+, metal warps. It's
very difficult to keep machined surfaces true when the metal is
expanding and contracting every time it heats up and cools off. Ceramically coating parts can go a long way in preventing this. I
definitely recommend it if you should choose this method.
- Combining fuel with steam to cause vaporization:
- Superheated water is an excellent way to crack
fuel molecules. It happens pretty quickly, and the steam also cleans
the intake system. I've read about some systems that actually start
to get hydrogen and oxygen to release from the water, thereby
enhancing combustion in the cylinder. Drawbacks are that when the
engine cools back down, steam turns back into liquid water. It can
cause rusting, and worse than that, it can hydro-lock an engine if
the cylinder gets too much water in it. Getting the right mix of
steam and fuel is also tricky. You don't want too much water, or
else the fuel becomes too diluted and unburnable.
- Sonic Atomizers
- Systems that use sonic waves are not true
vaporizers, in that they don't change the liquid into a vapor.
However, what does happen is that a small sonic boom is created at
the point of fuel introduction into the intake, and as a result, the
liquid fuel droplets are obliterated into a fraction of their usual
size. Because of this, the surface area of these droplets increases
drastically, and the heat in the intake and cylinder is then much
more able to vaporize them. Very effective. I have firsthand reports
of just such a system that achieved 100 miles per gallon on a
4-cylinder engine during the '70s. The only drawback I can find is
that in order to create the sonic boom, you have to have airspeed
traveling faster than sound. The intake manifold is very likely not
able to achieve or maintain that. Consequently, an air pump or
compressor may be needed to pump air through a sonic nozzle fast
enough to reach that velocity. Typically, 20-30 psi must be
maintained through the nozzle to generate the effect. Using a
compressor will draw about 20-30 amps continuously, thus putting a
major strain on the charging system. An engine mounted pump would
seem to be a better choice, although I know of no such pumps that
can generate that kind of pressure.
- Reformed Fuel Vapor Systems
- Reformed fuel is just another way of saying that
super-hot exhaust gases are injected directly into the fuel to heat
and vaporize it. I remember reading a little booklet 25 years ago
called 'The Secrets Of The 200 Mile Per Gallon Carburetor'. I don't
remember much about the booklet, except for one very important
sentence that I read. It said: "The fastest way to vaporize fuel is
to inject hot exhaust gas directly into it." That one idea stuck
with me, and I was able to devise a simple exhaust injection device
that ultimately yielded a 35% increase in gas mileage! It had
certain issues that made it unmarketable, but the concept was
definitely settled in my mind that vaporizing fuel would yield
substantial increases in mileage. The main drawback with the system
I had built (it cost $3 at the time, incidentally), was that I
didn't have an effective way to shut off the exhaust at idle. It
affected the idle quality noticeably, much like an EGR valve today
being stuck open. The solution to this today would be to simply use
the EGR valve as the control for the system, only route the exhaust
gases to the fuel before sending it into the intake manifold.
- Catalyzers
- These systems use exotic metals to chemically
convert the fuel, much like a catalytic converter changes exhaust
into harmless gases. As a matter of fact, the metals used are much
the same: platinum (you've heard of platinum spark plugs),
palladium, rhodium, and a few other exotics. One more method is to
use stainless steel with a high nickel content, as it has been found
that nickel also catalyzes fuel. I would recommend using this type
of stainless steel in the construction of any vapor system. I
believe the 300 series metals should do the trick. The down side is
that they are not cheap, and getting the right alloy mix could be a
very expensive experiment. Also, I haven't heard of many catalyzers
that yield drastic increases in mileage, although I have seen one
system that would consistently double miles per gallon. I was not
told what metals specifically were being used, and it was all very
hush-hush.
There are other less known methods, and you can see a
breakdown of the different types on our CD by going to the following
page:
Examples Of Our Info
I hope this information is useful to you,
and gets your creative juices flowing, so that you too can build a
successful vapor system to reduce your dependence on foreign oil. I'd
love to hear back from you if you have any questions or comments. Drop
me a line if you like at
editor@fuelvapors.com.
Thanks for your interest and your time.
We appreciate all those people that are looking for and creating answers
to today's energy problems.
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