We CAN increase your mileage!

[dieseltaylor]

Possibly ...

Courtesy of EE Times

(10/09/2008 11:13 AM EDT)

PORTLAND, Ore. — Fuel economy could be boosted by as much as 20 percent by adding a small device that applies an electric field to fuel before it enters internal combustion engines.

Researchers at Temple University (Philadelphia) who invented the device, recently completed six months of road testing with a diesel-powered Mercedes-Benz. The tests

increased fuel efficiency

from 32 to 38 MPG on highways (a 20 percent boost) and a 12 to 15 percent gain in city-driving mileage. The researchers claim the device could also be adapted to gasoline, biodiesel and kerosene.

The device draws power from vehicle batteries to electrically charge a tube used for fuel injection, thereby reducing fuel viscosity and increasing MPG. Since the electrically-charged fuel is thinner, the researchers said engine injectors create smaller droplets, enabling cleaner, more efficient combustion.

Save The World Air,

(Morgan Hill, Calif.) a green design and development company seeking to reduce auto emissions, has been licensed by Temple University to commercialize the technology. The company is retrofitting the device onto diesel trucks for testing. It estimates the device could save the embattled U.S. trucking industry as much as 12 percent in fuel costs.

The test vehicle was a 220D from 1973 : )

More imminent

BYD is launching the F3DM hybrid electric car two years ahead of GM and Toyota Motor Corp. Both GM and Toyota plan to use lithium-ion batteries but BYD is using iron-phosphate-based lithium-ion batteries, which the company claims are more chemically stable and less expensive than conventional lithium-ion batteries. BYD runs a large research department that employs about 8000 people that has developed what the company calls its Fe-batteries which exhibit low voltage (3.3 volt), long life (2000 recharges), and higher energy density.

Unlike its major automotive rivals the BYD group is a major global producer of rechargeable batteries for cell phones and other portable devices. BYD already has taken 60% share of the world market for nickel batteries and a 30% share of the global market for lithium-ion batteries.

BYD's capability to manufacture a green car at an affordable price has been a key factor in MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co., recent $230 million investment in the Chinese group. MidAmerican Energy is a subsidiary of investor guru Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway.

MidAmerican Energy's capital injection is likely to accelerate BYD's plans to launch vehicles in the US and European markets. BYD has already indicated that it will begin shipping vehicles to the Norwegian market during 2009.

[Sombra]

- Just put tire pressure monitoring in every new car.

will lower the overall fuel consumption by 4-5% and decrease tire failures and related deaths as well...

[dieseltaylor]

I think new sensors are just over

$200 each plus programming which shouldn't take too long.

taken from a Canadian Toyota fansite. Actual cost CDN$93 though some places sell them at $150 and the set-up cost Cdn$47 every time you change from winter to summer and vice versa. The strip down of a TPMS shows the parts at under $10 so the car manufacturers are using this to make super profits.

I am in favour of TPMS but mandating it whilst there is no cheap common system would be a rip-off. There are cheap tags you can put on tyre valves that will alert you to low pressure - providing you look at the tyres.

[rleete]

Sheesh, how about the driver is expected to use a tire pressure gauge once a month?

[dieseltaylor]

Unless you have a temperature compensated gauge it is a bit tricky. Amazingly we are told to take the readings in the morning - but my tyre pressure is what it should read at 70F.

So if its freezing in the morning I am meant to calculate the real pressure! I just about can.

And whilst on the fuel thing

As logistics and supply chain operations struggle with high fuel costs, the answer to our nation's oil woes may be brewing in a laboratory in California. A two-year-old biotech company, LS9 Inc. of San Francisco, has developed a genetically engineered microbe that excretes diesel. That microbe, a harmless form of altered E. coli bacteria, feeds on sugar from plant material, digests the sugar, and then produces diesel as a waste product. Although the company is focusing on diesel, LS9 has said the microbes could also be engineered to make gasoline or jet fuel.

Unlike some other synthetic fuels, microbe-made diesel can be produced without the use of corn or other edible plants from the nation's food supply. That's because these one-celled critters can use any type of agricultural product as feedstock, including waste like wheat straw and wood chips. As another plus, LS9 has reported that its diesel has 50 percent more energy content than ethanol, which means that a vehicle that gets 20 miles to a gallon of ethanol would get 30 miles from a gallon of the bacteria-produced fuel.

This so-called "biofuel" also has advantages over the petroleum that comes out of the ground. For starters, unlike fossil fuels, bacteria-produced diesel does not contain any carcinogens like benzene. It also has less sulfur than is found in a barrel of crude oil, and since the government has mandated that trucks use low-sulfur diesel to cut down on air pollution, that's another plus. In fact, this biofuel is virtually pump-ready, as it only needs a simple cleaning step to filter out impurities.

Although the company has shown that the bacteria can make diesel in a test tube, it has yet to begin mass production. At present, the company can make one barrel of diesel a week, using a 1,000-liter fermenta

[thewood]

I excrete gas after a heavy session of salsa.

Hmm...wonder if I could do diesel?