Completely ridiculous idea...

[theholycow]

We can all laugh at this:


However, while experimenting with my EGR, I had a though: What about DEI with oxygen injection? What is needed for combustion besides oxygen and fuel? Is there anything in exhaust that would completely prevent combustion, given oxygen, fuel, and inert gases? Obviously it couldn't be a completely closed system, but if it could get most of its intake from exhaust...like, the whole 79% of air that's not oxygen.

It was just a crazy, ridiculous thought, not something I seriously think could work, but I'd be interested in what others have to say.

[GasSavers_Erik]

I think it is a good idea, but having a majority of inert exhaust gas in the cylinder might dilute the air and fuel mix so much that the flame front would have difficulty igniting the sparse air and fuel.

If an engine had direct gasoline injection into the region beside the spark plug- and it was programed to admit the proper amount of fresh air proportional to the gasoline that was being injected (the rest of the cylinder would be filled with exhaust) then that could provide a way to run a gas engine without a throttle plate and the associated losses.

[GasSavers_Erik]

If this thread is open to more ridiculous ideas, mine is to build a vehicle with a second flywheel which is much larger than standard size- maybe 8-10 times larger than standard flywheel (it could be built into the transmission or be located between the engine and transmission and have its own separate heavy duty bearings). This flywheel would have a spring loaded safety system that would slow/stop it in the event of an accident (kind of like a chainsaw has when the upper guard is pushed forward)

This engine would have no throttle valve and would have a one way coupling between the large flywheel and the engine so that the engine can slow down without the car slowing down. Engine rpm is controlled by whether or not fuel is injected. It would literally be a pulse and glide engine. To idle, the engine might only get gas/fire 1 out of every 10 seconds. At a high speed highway cruise, it may only fire 50% or the time. But in all cases, there would be no throttling losses and it would be running at full compression all the time much like a diesel.

[theholycow]

^I like the flywheel idea.

Originally Posted by Erik

If an engine had direct gasoline injection into the region beside the spark plug

Direct gasoline injection is good, I can go for that. It's working well on lots of new cars now.

and it was programed to admit the proper amount of fresh air proportional to the gasoline that was being injected

My thought was to forget fresh air entirely and just inject pure oxygen to support combustion. The exhaust gas could take the place of all the nitrogen, CO2, etc normally found in air (and while we're at it, presumably we could monkey around with ratios of oxygen to inert gas). Could that work?

However, I see where you were going with that, get rid of the throttle and admit enough exhaust gas to take the throttle's place...that's a more realistic sounding idea.

[GasSavers_Erik]

I think it could work (adding pure oxygen gas + direct injected gasoline to a mix of exhaust). But it would necessitate another fuel tank (for the pure oxygen), unless you were to use on board electrolysis to generate it.

I think it could be even be practical as an ICE powered moon rover or mars rover- maybe even for a non- nuclear submarine in the event that it had exhausted its battery power (pun intended).