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[[sv:Klimatförändring]]
[[uk:Зміна клімату]]
Heat Vaporization of Liquid Gasoline or Petrol fuel as a means to increase vehicle fuel mileage and decrease engine emissions,
For complete info visit, www.byronwine.com/files/1992%20vapor.pdf
By Frieda Mind
The intended purpose of this project was to more thoroughly utilize gasoline when burning in a spark ignited (SI) internal combustion engine (ICE). Gasoline SI engines have continually been getting further refinements and tuning yet one thing is the same today as 100 years ago. Either if by carburetor or an electronic fuel injection system, the gasoline is introduced to the engine’s intake stroke at relatively the same temperature as it was 100 years ago. Today’s cars have catalytic converters and smog control devices to re-burn most the unburned fuel remaining in car’s exhaust. Wouldn’t it be better if, an engine used that extra fuel and increased its work by burning the fuel properly the first time? There have been people over the past 100 years who have pointed out this problem and offered solutions. The most notably might be Charles Pogue who was issued US patent# 2,026,798 in 1936 for his fuel saving invention.
With conventional SI fuel systems only the gasoline with the opportunity to vaporize by splashing onto a hot piston head, valve or other sizzling engine part prior to being ignited by the spark plug, will be of any help in doing work for the engines power stroke. Any residual fuel vaporized by the flash of burning fuel might also assist the power stroke but it would need to happen quickly and remaining oxygen is scarce and much hotter and less effective.
This project involved studying the works and patents of Pogue along with, Ray Covey’s (Patent# 4,368,163), Loren and Kelly Naylor, The Carb Research Center of Foyil Oklahoma, Harold Schwartz, Robert Shelton, Ivor Newberry, Forrest Gerrard and others.
The works in this paper involved studying principals of vaporizing gasoline to a vaporous state then burning the vaporized gasoline fuel in an SI engine, followed up with a narrative on utilizing these principals with our current available technologies.
Utilizing waste heat from an engine to preheat the gasoline fuel to a vapor prior to introducing to the engine is beneficial in causing the engine to achieve more efficient gas mileage while cleaning up tailpipe emissions. Burning propane in SI powered vehicles has proven to lengthen the engine life, run cooler, and lessen buildup of carbon and sludge. Vapor will also cut down on unburned gasoline from splashing onto oil cylinder walls and causing increased engine wear.
This description explains a fairly complete method to heat gasoline to a highly gassiest state of individual gasoline molecules. It will also describe a method for introducing the gasoline vapor into the engine as fuel via a spray bar or duel fuel mixer. Both these methods are found on vehicles with propane or liquefied petroleum (LP) gas fuel systems.
The vaporized fuel can also be introduced by fuel injection when using vapor-fuel type fuel injectors in conjunction with a computer and a small number of sensors for data input and actuators to maintain a proper fuel heat range and intake air flow.
The narrative describes a method to utilize the engines hot exhaust stream to heat up the gasoline or petrol to the mentioned gassiest state.
Propane turns from a liquid to a vapor at -44F degrees or above unless under pressure. At 100F degrees propane will exert 172 pounds per Square inch (PSI) on the walls of whatever container it is in. Todays gasoline does not vaporize fully till it is heated to over 200F degrees. When using vaporized gasoline as a fuel, the engines hot exhaust is used to heat the fuel to the point of becoming a vapor. Visually inspecting this highly explosive gasoline vapor vented from an untapped nozzle, it has the identical appearance of propane or butane vapor when venting, as in situations of refilling a propane tank.
For aid in understanding how this system works refer to the labeled diagrams and photos. This projects particular system was built for and tested on a Nissan/Datsun 1600cc overhead cam engine as found in late 1960s early 1970s Datsun series. This system will work on any gasoline internal combustion engine and considerably well in certain hybrid electric configurations.
How exhaust is used to vaporize the gasoline,
This narrative will start with the route of the hot exhaust flowing from the engines’ exhaust ports. Right after exiting the engines manifold exhaust ports the exhaust meets a junction with two separate directions to flow. One direction is its usual flow out the exhaust system. The other direction diverts the exhaust flow past a coil of stainless steel (SS) tubing. This (SS) coil is a heat exchanger inserted directly in route of hot exhaust flow. This stainless steel heat exchanger creates turbulence in the exhaust flow much like a muffler. The exhaust is forced to flow around and through this restrictive mass and transfer heat to the (SS) heat exchanger. The gasoline pumped into this very same (SS) coil is pushed through the tubing and forced under low pressure to exit the other end of the tubing in a vaporous state.
The outer mild steel body of this heat exchanger/exhaust manifold can be built from modifying a steel tube exhaust manifold (racing header type) used in race cars and seen in drawing (A). Directly downstream from where exhaust header is bolted to engine head each individual pipe of header has a passage pipe drilled, fitted and welded to it. On a 4 cylinder engine there would be 4 pipes and 4 of these passages or crossovers from each pipe. A six cylinder engine would have a header with 6 pipes and 6 shorter cross over pipes. These crossover pipes lead from the individual header pipes to the sidewall of a larger pipe that is positioned perpendicular and alongside each of the mentioned header pipes. This larger pipe called the heat exchanger housing pipe, can be made from a length of pipe such as a section of exhaust pipe used on large trucks and buses. The pipe in the pictures has an inside diameter of 3 and quarter (3.25)inches. This housing pipe has positioned within it a coiled stainless steel heat exchanger (photo D) that is securely fastened in place to a faceplate by flared tubing fittings. The wall on other end of heat exchanger housing pipe has welded to it a centered positioning pin. The positioning pin is to give the (SS) heat exchanger coil a place to rest against when coil is inserted into housing pipe and faceplate is bolted in place. The faceplate works as a sealed lid and it has machined bolts positioned around its perimeter for secure bolting. The face plate and the housing flange are sealed by either a solid flange gasket or by using a mix of extreme high temperature engine sealant that is thickened with tiny scrapes of ceramic insulation.
The entire manifold assembly is wrapped in high temperature ceramic insulation covered with a heat reflective woven material. This type of material is used in ship engine rooms and other industrial applications.
Prior to pumping fuel into the heat exchanger tubing, the flared fittings (in photo) that secure the (SS) coil to the inside of housing faceplate are tested for leaks. On the outlet end of the stainless steel coil is located a well insulated surge chamber. This small surge chamber is used to accommodate and store a small amount of hot vapor to be available for supplying short bursts of power on demand in quick acceleration situations.
Fitted and also welded onto heat exchanger housing pipe in addition to crossover pipes is an exit pipe. This extra pipe (seen in photo with hose clamp around it) is the same size (or larger) to that of the engines stock exhaust pipe. This pipe provides a route for the hot exhaust gases to exit the heat exchanger after heating the (SS) coil. The exhaust continues out the heat exchangers exit pipe and continues to run under the car and out the back.
When the exhaust stream exits the engines exhaust ports and follows the conventional route out the original header pipes (avoiding the mentioned heat exchanger) these header pipes will converge into a larger junction pipe. Located within this larger pipe at this conversion ___location is a ‘gate’ for closing off the exhaust flow (or not). This gate can be actuated by, electronics, hydraulics, pneumatics, mechanical, telepathic or cable means, to open or close the flow of exhaust passing through the header convergence pipe. Closing this gate has the effect of forcing most the hot exhaust into the heat exchanger where it can do work to bring up the temperature of the incoming gasoline contained within the coil of stainless steel (SS) fuel line. The volume and temperature of exhaust passing through the heat exchanger dictates available fuel vapor heating capacity.
Beyond the gate the two divergent exhaust streams can continue out the back of the vehicle as separate pipes or can re-converge into one pipe after the gate then exit out the vehicles rear.
Regulating a proper heat range,
Regulating temperature is critical for keeping incoming gasoline heated to proper ranges. When vehicle idles it uses less fuel and also generates less heat, running under a load is opposite more fuel needed and more available heat. Ample heat to the fuel is provided under most operating conditions but problem arises when operating in varying and crowded traffic conditions when it becomes difficult to regulate the temperatures quick enough to compensate for the varied range of engine RPMs in stop and go driving. The insulated surge chamber with a responsive manifold gate can make this type of driving a possibility for vehicles with a traditional drive train, but it is difficult to design this type of system for stop and go driving conditions. A true hybrid electric/ICE system with a well designed and responsive vaporized gasoline carburetion system would be more practical. The best systems would be an ICE coupled to a battery bank to generate electricity, and a large electric motor to drive the car and regenerate power when braking. A more advanced hybrid design that would work very well with this type of vapor fuel technology would be one like the Toyota hybrid electric system.
A Hybrid Electric system designed so regenerative braking and propulsion using an electric motor drawing power from a small battery bank recharged by, or charged directly from either a diesel or a vapor fuel injected gasoline powered engine. This type of system would allow the gasoline SI engine to provide power to recharge the batteries and assist with power on hills and loads. It will also allow the engine to operate within a closer power RPM range. With less variations in engine RPMs it becomes simpler to adjust the exhaust gates position in-order to maintain a proper temperature range.
Recapping from the top, exhaust comes out cylinder head exhaust ports to header pipes and continues down individual pipes, through the junction gate and out rear of vehicle. The exhaust gasses chose the least restricted route. Now partially or fully close the gate valve at the end of the header and exhaust gasses will be diverted into the heat exchanger housing pipe and forced past and thru the stainless steel (SS) tubing coil to heat the gasoline before exiting out the exhaust exit pipe. Much heat is absorbed by the gasoline passing thru coils as the gasoline passes from a liquid to a vaporous state in passing thru coil. The gasoline is slightly pressurized and maintained at a consistent low pressure by using one-way, ball check valves that make it impossibly for fuel to leak back out of the heat exchanger.
Stainless Steel (SS) heat exchanger at heart of system,
The (SS) coil is actually a double coil that is wound from (one quarter inch [inside diameter]) tubing. When completed the entire double coil we wound was about 3 inches in diameter and 13 inches in length and if stretched out it would be over 16 feet long.
Rolling this coil requires a lathe that is manually turned with a set of pipe or monkey wrenches. The inner coil is turned around a small pipe as seen in photo. One end of this pipe is locked in lathes chuck. The chuck end of the pipe has a slot grooved into it. This slot will accept a short length of the tubing. About 3-4 inches of the tubing is inserted thru this slot in pipe after pipe is locked in lathe chuck. It is important to keep the ends of the coil tubing straight so they can later have flared fittings installed to allow bolting coil to heat exchanger faceplate as seen in photo. Start manually winding the (SS) tubing around the pipe after it is securely locked in lathe chuck. Do not turn the lathes motor on!. Even at a low speed it will turn too fast to coil tubing safely. You are using the lathe as a way to manually coil the tubing. Have a second person manually turn the lathe by using two pipe wrenches. This person will use two pipe wrenches to grip and turn the far end of coiling pipe, while another person feeds the (SS) tubing around the spinning pipe. It is important to provide spacing around the tube for hot exhaust gasses to pass by tubes so use a sturdy, squared piece of wood (or something that will not scratch the tubing) with dimensions of (3/8-1/2 inch) by (3/8-1/2 inch) and about 8 to 10 inches long. This tool is used to maintain a consistent slot between the tubing for the entire length it is spun onto lathe. The person handling the tubing holds this spacing tool alongside tubing as it is pulled around pipe and uses spacing tool to establish a set distance between last individual winding of coiled tube with coil they are winding. Once the pipes inner coil of tubing is wound to proper length, the entire gizmo, pipe and all is removed from lathe. The next step is to wind the outer coil around the already wound inner coil. For winding the outer coil a piece of pipe that is shorter and has a larger diameter than the original pipe locked in chuck. This larger pipes diameter is just large enough to slip over the first coil of tubing and is only as long as the length of the wound inner coil. The piped coil gizmo with now 2 pipes and one wound (inner) coil is positioned back into the lathe chuck and tightened. The second coil is wound the same way as the first was, but in the opposite direction over the first coil using the spacer tool, and pulled back to the starting end of the inner coil. The gizmo is again removed from the lathe and spacer pipe is slid out from between coils and starting end of quarter inch (SS) tubing is slid out from slotted grove in pipe.
The end of the outer SS coil is carefully bent 90 degrees so to be aimed the same direction as end of inner coil tubing and both ends are then attached to the inside of face plate of heat exchanger housing with SS flare fittings. Be careful to slip the flare fitting over the tubing end prior to flaring the tubing. Also be sure both ends of coil will reach face plate in proper position and one end is not longer than the other. Also it is important when coiling the tubing that one does not end up with a coil that is too long and will not fit within the length of the heat exchanger housing pipe. It is also important to assure that one stops the coiling of outer coil with enough length needed to bend the tubing end 90 degrees to safely and securely plumb it to inside wall of heat exchanger faceplate. It should not be difficult to do the geometry needed to calculate how many inner and outer coils one would expect to get over a given distance. The formula to determine the circumference of a coil is 2(3.14)R. The R is the ratio or half the diameter.
The surge chamber could be a length of pipe positioned in a hot spot directly alongside the header and insulated to maintain heat. It could also be fitted inside the heat exchanger housing with one end of SS coil shorter or longer to accommodate the surge chamber. The surge chamber in photograph (D) is 3-4 times larger than what is needed and when this large it will become harder to keep insulated and hot.
It is highly recommended that all fuel lines in system located downstream from the (SS) coil in heat exchanger be constructed from (SS) tubing and the line that passes from the heat exchanger to the engine intake manifold be constructed from braided/flexible (SS) tubing.
Welded to the faceplate in photo (D) is a channel used to convey the vaporous gasses from the coiled tubing in the heat exchanger over to the external surge tank. A better and simpler design would be to use a short piece of pipe with a gravity fed trap on one end used to trap and later remove all crud and mysterious? solids that fail to vaporize with the gasoline. (Examining these trapped solids leads one to ponder just what compounds are being used as “additives” in our gasoline). This trap pipe would have plumbed to it a flexible (SS) tubing connected to the carburetion system located on engines intake manifold (diagram C).
Understanding how system works,
The operating principal of this system is as follows. There are two methods to introduce the fuel to engine combustion chamber, and referring to diagram B might be helpful at this point. One route is for liquid gasoline when engine is first started and the other method is for the vaporized gasoline once system is warmed up. On more advanced applications both tasks can be done by fuel injection. This system could also work using a conventional fuel injection system or carburetor when fuel is liquid and a propane type mixer bar (diagram C) when operating in vapor mode. There is one modification to the mixing bar that needs to be added. The incoming air being pulled thru the venturi, past throttle plate and past the spray bar below will cool down the metal spray bar and cause the vaporized gasoline to condense back to liquid on the walls of the spray bar. For this reason it is important to position another piece of pipe (cut in half length wise) alongside and cupped around the spray bar but actually not in contact with the spray bar. This outer pipe is positioned slightly upstream of the spray bar and works to block the flow of incoming air from hitting the spray bar. Diagram C has an example the spraybar and heat shield or half-pipe. It is important to note that all fuel lines between the heat exchanger coil in addition to being stainless steel should also be well insulated, along with insulating the heat exchanger housing and surge chamber to lessen possibility of gasoline condensing to liquid. A good insulation and wrapping for this task is again the ceramic type insulation and cloth wrapping with the reflective coating already mentioned.
The fuel is conveyed from vehicles fuel tank thru vehicles stock tubing routed to engine compartment. Once at engine compartment the fuel is diverted by electric actuated valves (#1 diagram B) either of 2 routes. One route remains in the vehicles stock fuel system and on to carburetor or fuel injection(#s 2A & 3A diagram B). This route is used on starting and warm up mode only. The other route uses an electric fuel pump(#2 diagram B) that pushes the fuel thru a propane vacuum fuel lock (VFF) (#5 diagram B) than on into heat exchanger (#7 diagram B) to be vaporized.
In order to operate vapor system the fuel needs to be maintained at a suitable pressure. Also at times when engine stops running for any reason the flow shuts down automatically using the VFF and a vacuum actuated switch (#6) will shut down power to the relay to the electric fuel pump. Lastly the fuel can not back flow from the hot heat exchanger into the vehicles fuel tank nor allow gas vapors to release to atmosphere. These safety features are maintained by plumbing the electric fuel pump (#2) into a tee junction (#3). This tee has a pressure regulating one-way ball check valve (#4) on a tee exit that is set to open at about 5-6 pounds per square inch (PSI) and routes fuel exiting the tee from this check valve back to the fuel tank. This check valve component is designed to ensure a steady and regulated flow of fuel to the vapor system maintained at 5PSI or less.
The remaining exit from the said tee (#3) goes thru 2 one-way check valves (not shown) that are set to open at 3-5(PSI). One valve regulated at 3-5(PSI) would work fine here but duplicate valve(s) are a failsafe designed to stop back-flow of fuel thru tee. The fuel is than routed thru a propane fuel system vapor check valve (#5) commonly called a (VFF). The VFF remains open anytime the intake manifold maintains vacuum. The purpose of the intake manifold pressure actuated VFF valve is to shut off the flow of fuel entering the heat exchanger at times the engine is stalled or not running. The fuel is pumped thru VFF at 3-5(PSI) when engine is operating and has vacuum in its intake manifold. The fuel is pushed into the coiled (SS) heat exchanger (#7) as a liquid at 3-5(PSI) and exits heat exchanger as a vapor at 3-5(PSI) and forced into another tee where it can either go into the reservoir or conveyed to intake manifold and mixed with incoming air (diagram C and #9,#10 in diagram B) to power the engine. This tee also has a removable pipe that acts as a trap (not shown) and allows all solids that would not vaporize to accumulate via gravity. To clean out these mysterious solids the pipe is removed by unscrewing, cleaned and then replaced.
Regulating how system operates
The simple method we used for operating system was as follows. Mounted to our dashboard was a 3 position switch. One position was off and all fuel was naturally plumbed to stock fuel system. We used this position for starting, warm-up and to get us home in case of any vapor carburetion failures. The second position was to a diverter valve to switch the fuel flow from the stock carburetor thru the electric fuel pump than onto the heat exchanger. The third position was the same as the second with the addition of the electric fuel pump switched on as well. The vehicle is started in position one and once warmed up turned to position two till the carburator is starved for fuel than position 3 where the vapor fuel system takes over carburetion function. We also installed into the vehicles dash a cable for operating the exhaust gate as seen in photos. For more heat we would close the gate and the exhaust would be forced through the heat exchanger. Alongside the gate cable are two gauges normally used in small airplanes to monitor cylinder head temperature. We used these gauges first to monitor the vapor temperature as it went into the intake manifold and also to monitor the exhaust temperature as it left the heat exchanger. The conventional non hybrid electric car will be easier to operate in the vapor mode if the road conditions are consistent and it is possible to maintain a steady RPM range. Varying RPMs will make it more difficult to maintain an exhaust gate position heat range that the engine will like.
Use this knowledge at your own risk while exercising an utmost respect for the dangerous nature of gasoline if reading this leads to further studying of this art and possibly building your own vaporized gasoline carburetion system. The authors take no responsibility for any damages or injuries incurred from any person(s) working in this art. Gasoline like propane is highly flammable and explosive, handle with extreme care!
It seems the oil companies and the auto companies cannot figure this out so lets work to enlighten them on how to build a car properly. People are dieing because of wars over dirty crude oil and the earths atmosphere is getting destroyed and causing global climate change while many powerful governmental world leaders are running out of common sense and empathy for the citizens of the world. It looks like it is up to “We the People” once again to fix things and start leading our supposed leaders. The power for making positive change is in all our hands! We just need to start believing it and assert our responsibility to reclaim this power. We also must remain human so we can laugh, cry, shout, cuss, inspire, nurture and share.
Have fun and be safe, FM
Photo captions (numbers on back)
1. Using lathe to wind first coil around grooved pipe locked in lathe. (pipe wrenches not in photo)
2. Showing how tubing end is positioned into grooved pipe that is locked into lathe chuck.
3. View of positioning of outer pipe around inner coil before pulling second outer coil on lathe.
4. Close up view of double SS coil securely fitted to inside of heat exchanger faceplate with flared fittings.
5. View of SS coil and oversized surge tank with front of heat exchanger on left side.
6. Exhaust header with heat exchanger disassembled from header.
7. Exhaust header with SS coil positioned inside. Note hose clamp positioned around heat exchanger exhaust pipe. Piece of wire under clamp is end of sending wire to the exhaust temperature gauge on dash.
8. Bottom view of exhaust manifold with sample of ceramic insulation alongside.
9. Engine side view of complete exhaust manifold with re-convergence pipe bolted to flange set.
10. Close up view of exhaust gate, note cobwebs from sitting in basement.
11. Rear view of exhaust manifold with re-convergence pipe disconnected.
12. Close up view of two separate exhaust routes before they re-converge.
13. Top view of gate at bottom of photo. Bolt on left is to secure outer wall of gate cable. Pipes on right side of flanges are the re-convergence pipe.
14. View of cable on left side, Vapor temperature gauge in center and exhaust temperature gauge on right.
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