PETROL POWER

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIII, Issue 78, 14 March 1933, Page 3

PETROL POWER

ENORMOUS ANNUAL WASTE PROBLEM FOR SCIENCE. SUBSTITUTE FOR THE CARBURETTOR. To see a motorist put ten gallons of petrol in a car which returns less energy than would be developed from half a gallon of petrol in an efficient engine, is one of the perpetual heartbreaks of the modern scientist. But no scientist, not even a Scot, has yet been able to design an engine that will use the potential petrol energy that is wasted in the average motor car. The scientist knows that petrol is, weight for weight, eight times mole powerful than dynamite. He knows that converted completely into work the heat energy m a gallon of petrol is equivalent to the effort that would be expended in lifting 50,000 tons one foot off the ground, or lifting a 20cwt. car ten miles vertically into the air. He knows that he is only utilising about 3J per cent, of the latent power in the petrol that goes into the tank, and that 96j per cent, of the energy in the petrol he buys goes to waste. These are staggering facts, and when one considers that similar waste is going on in 35,000,000 motor vehicles, the colossal nature of the loss in wasted energy is apparent. Expressed in another way, the motor vehicles of the world are consuming annually some 23,000,000.000 gallons of petrol. Of this huge volume of fuel, automobile owners are getting the conversion value equivalent to the energy of only 805,000,00)0 gallons, while the vast potential power of 22,195,000,000 gallons is paid for, but not utilised. Some weeks back the scientific world was amazed when word was flashed throughout civilised countries that two young English physicists. Dr. J. Cockcroft and Dr. E. T. Walton, had split the atom, a discovery which at some future date may result in releasing to the world undreamt of stores of untapped energy. Atomic energy may be a stage nearer usefulness, but unfortunately the challenge to scientists to solve what appears to be a far simpler problem, the release of a greater percentage ct power from petrol, seems to be no nearer solution than it was 20 years ago, POSSIBLE SAVING. If the present 3} per cent, of energyused could be increased to 10 per cent., the value of the GJ per cent, increased energy available would be worth the colossal sum of £1,018.000,000 annually, and this on a world’s average price of 9d per gallon of petrol. And there would still be 90 per cent, of the latent power of the world’s annual consumption of petrol for scientists to further juggle with. It is an amazing thing that the application of the fundamental principle of carburation, as applied to automo. bile engines, has really undergone no major improvement for over a quarter of a century, and this, despite the fact that about 20 per cent, of the cost of running a motor car is for petrol. Carburettors are designed automatically to meter out air and fuel according to predetermined proportions, and supply the power unit with a ratio of approximately 16 parts of air to one of petrol, but so many subtle things affect car-

buration that in many motor vehicles complete combustion is not obtained. The admission by experts that motor, ists are only obtaining 3J per cent, of the potential energy of the petrol they buy is indeed a challenge to scientists and automotive experts, for surely motor owners are not always to be faced with the existing staggering waste. Maybe the world’s deluge of oil and the vast over-production of petrol has of recent years slackened efforts to evolve a method of obtaining more power from motor spirit. Motor engineers are obtaining increased power by raising the compression ratio, but that is not attacking the problem at its generic base. BRITISH EXPERIMENTS. Considerable research was carried out by the carburation section of tho British Royal Air Force at Lambert North, London, towards the tail end of the Great War. Experiments with premade gas from petrol, delivered to engine at from 60 to 901 b. pressure, gave some highly encouraging results, one being that one pint of petrol gasified, gave off as much energy as nine pints of earburetted petrol. It was demonstrated that the conversion of petrol to gas gave results far surpassing any. thing usually obtained from ordinary carburation methods. The data obtain, ed opened up a vista of a new avenue leading to better use of the latent power in petrol, eliminating at the same time much of the losses and perplexities caused through inefficient car. Duration, which are only too apparent when one gets a whiff of the exhaust gases from passing motor vehicles. When the Armistice was signed, and demobilisation of personnel and war materials followed, further research and experimentation by the war author, ities was dropped and apparently little has since been done, although to-day a number of municipal motor buses in Paris are running on ordinary coakgas, carried in steel containers aboard the vehicle. USE OF GAS. Whether substitution of the carburettor by ;i small gas generating outfit affixed to the chassis, fed with petrol from the usual tank will ever be used to supply the engine with a stable premade gas under pressure, is a matter that lies In the lap of the gods. Conceivably it would be a fine thing for owners of automobiles, if such a principle were practicable. Among the benefits that would accrue would be complete combustion, less wear of motivating engine parts, greater fuel economy, avoidance of the harmful effects that follow on dust being sucked into the engine by the air stream

via carburettor, and lessening of wear of self-starter and stress on batteries. Who knows, maybe in tho distant future something of the nature suggested may replace the carburation system that has now been so long in vogue; not on account of its efficiency, but because scientists and automotive experts have not yet evolved anything better. But unquestionably that day will arrive, ‘ .