Carbon Trust in the UK is providing funds for new low carbon ignition technology
Gentlemen, start your lasers
It’s Friday afternoon here at LotPro.com, so we thought that we’d offer up something different, yet still automotive-related.
Today, that happens to be the news coming out of the U.K. that engineers at the University of Liverpool (for you baby boomers out there that’s the same town that gave us the Beatles and Jerry & The Pacemakers), working with Ford Motor Company, are the recipients of a £198,910 ($323,900) grant from the Carbon Trust (a British government entity created to develop low carbon technologies for the future) to develop a vehicle ignition system, based on lasers, which could cut car exhaust emissions.
Cleaner engines
According to the Carbon Trust, replacing a conventional spark ignition with laser ignition would enable a higher degree of control over the combustion of the air and fuel mixture in a conventional gasoline engine, thereby reducing a vehicle’s carbon emissions in a number of ways.
Experiments conducted at the National Energy Technology Laboratory (part of the Department of Energy here in the U.S.), indicate that the leaner an internal combustion engine runs, the “cleaner” it would be, in terms of nitrogen oxide emissions. Lean-burn engines, with their lower combustion temperatures, significantly reduce the amount of NOx produced. In order to do this, however, an increase in spark energy is required and, to quote Shakespeare, “ay, there’s the rub.”
NETL puts it this way, “Delivering increased spark energy negatively impacts spark plug durability and the effectiveness of the spark plug in transmitting adequate energy as an ignition source. The lack of spark plugs with the required durability is quickly becoming the limiting factor for developing ultra low emission, high-efficiency natural gas engines. Laser ignition delivers the high energy required to ignite ultra-lean mixtures and eliminates the need for spark plugs.”
Laser ignitions
According to Carbon Trust, unlike a conventional spark ignition which is able to fire one (usually) or two (in a few engines) sparks at or near the combustion chamber roof, it is possible to aim a laser anywhere in the combustion chamber – ideally where the fuel is most concentrated.
By using a computer to direct the beam, the engine can be run much more efficiently, while also overcoming the poor-start performance of engines running on biofuel blends.
Another benefit of the laser ignition system is that the beam can be delivered through much thinner fiber optic cables, enabling the use of larger diameter valves that will result in a more efficient flow of gases through the engine.
The future
Dr Tom Shenton, Reader in Engineering at the University of Liverpool and Principal Investigator on the project, said: “The key to reducing emissions in the spark-ignition engine is improved control, and for the last one hundred years the primary means of ignition control has been the spark plug. With laser ignition we now have an exciting new alternative which will give much greater scope for engine controller optimization and the implementation of new engine designs.”
Images courtesy of The Department of Energy, National Energy Technology Laboratory
Tags: beatles, carbon trust, department of energy, doe, Ford, ford motor company, lean burn, national energy technology laboratory, netl, nitrogen oxide emissions, university of liverpool
Posted in Fuel Economy | Post a Comment | RSS Feed
