William Atkins
Monday, 03 November 2008 22:47
Science -
Energy
Page 1 of 3
A U.S. study has shown that giving a small burst of electricity to gasoline just before it is injected into an engine’s cylinders increases fuel efficiency by over 18 percent, thus, improving gas mileage.
U.S. scientist
Rongjia Tao, a professor and chair of the Department of Physics at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, led the study on a German-made Mercedes-Benz 300D automobile.
The paper, also authored by K. Huang, H. Tang, and D. Bell, all from Temple University, is titled “
Electrorheology Leads to Efficient Combustion.” It was published in the November 2008 issue of the journal
Energy and Fuels, which is a publication of the American Chemical Society (ACS).
Its abstract states,
“Improving engine efficiency and reducing pollutant emissions are extremely important. Here, we report our fuel injection technology based on the new physics principle that proper application of electrorheology can reduce the viscosity of petroleum fuels.”
Electrorheology is a physical process in which extremely fine, non-conducting particles change viscosity by an order of tens of thousands with the addition of an electric field.
U.S. inventor Willis Winslow first obtained a patent for the process in 1947, after which it was called the Winslow effect. Such fluids abiding by the Winslow effect are called electrorheological fluids.
Read more about it (and how it relates to chocolate) at The New York Times article "
Chocolate: The Stuff Of Shock Absorbers?" (November 3, 2008).
How did the researchers perform their experiment? Please read on.
