NEW FUEL

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 374, 8 November 1932, Page 2

NEW FUEL

POSSIBLE REY OLUTIONARY ' CHANGE IN ENGINE DESIGN. UTILISING WATER. That the motor industry within a few years may hecome almost independent of supplies of 'petrol and fuel oij, and that the costs of motoring may ha reduced* astoundingly is a prediction which at flrst sight might he regarded as the dream of a professional inventor. Yet, states an overseas paper, such a development is, it appears, not beyond the limits of reasonable possihility, and the work of a German scientist which has received favourable notiee in the British technical Press may lead to. general and revolutionary changes in the design of internal comhustion engines. The authenticated details qf liis invention are still incomplete, but there are grounds for helieving that a most notable advance in engineering practice has been made. The inventor of the new system of fuel supply descrihed below is Herr Rudolph Erren, who has apparently succeeded in devising a commercially practicahl'e meth'od of employing ordihary water as a sole or prineipal fuel for internal comhustion engines. It is, of course, well known that hy means of electrolysis water may he split up into its constituent proportions of hydrogen and oxygen, and it is on that ' principle that the Erren engine's fuel supply depends inasmuch as the generated gases are then fed to the cylinders and exploded hy means of conventional electrical ignition. A mixture of hydrogen and oxygen is highly combustible, and hy making use of a comhination of those gases, in substitution of the ordinary air and petrol, a powerful and progressive explosion may be secured in the cylinders of an internal combusion engine. The method by which the water is dscomposed and the supply of gases obtained is that known as pressure electrolysis, in which the current is passed through the water which has been made slightly acid in order to ensure good conductivity, in a sealed pressure cell, the result being that th'e gases which are set free maintain a high pressure in the sp'ecial cell or electrolyser, as it is called, and so can he easily fed hy suitahle me&ns to the cylinders or stored at great pressure in metal eontainers. Practical Application. A British report points out that in the electrolyser there is a special diaphragm which provides for the separation of the two gases as they are formed. It is also stated that the consumption of electricity necessary for th'e generation of a given volume of gas is about half of that required with an ordinary electrolytic cell. The practical application of this* innovation is this: A vehicle can either be fitted with an electrolyser, which is supplied with current from a dynamo driven by the engine, in which case an auxiliary supply of petrol or alcohol fuel is required; or it can operate on compressed hydrogen and oxygen carried in high-pressure eontainers; or, thirdly, the explosive mixture may be obtained from a compressed supply cf hydrogen and oxygen taken from the atmosphere. Where only oxygen and hydrogen are used it is stated that the emission from the exhaust is simply superheated steam, but when atmospheric aYr is employed in conjunction with hydrogen the exhaust is a mixture of water vapour and nitrogen. In regard to the more practical facts concerning its economic efficiency, it is claimed that, no matter which of the three mixtures referred to ahove is used, the comhustion of the charge is quite free from detonation and imparts a smooth, progressive power impulse like that of the steam engine, while there is, too, it is saitj, an entire absence of caxbon deposits in the cylinders, and the engine will operate evenly under th'e heaviest load. It is also asserted that where a proportion of liquid fuel is used it is completely vapourised and maximum power is obtained from it, thanks to the high temperature and quick comhustion o-f the hydrogen. Results of Tests. Various claims have also been made in respect of the betterment of power output and fuel economy obtained. It is said that under test a four-cylinder petrol engine, which had. been adapted to the new system of fuel supply, v/hen driven on a petrol gas mixture developed 30 per eent. greater power output, used 50 per cent. less petrol, and presumably hased on relative costs in Germany) sh'owed a saving of 42 per cent. in fuel costs as compared with the same unit operated on petrol alone. Another interesting experiment was that carried out with a 40-h.p. lorry, which was driven at an average speed of 25 miles per hour over a road course of 250 miles, On one trip petrol fuel alone was used, and in the other compressed hydrogen and atmospheric air. It was estimated that the fuel cost in respect of the 250-mile trip on petrol was about five guineas, while that of the run made with compressed hydrogen was only about 24s shijlings. It is understood that this new systsm^ of fuel supply has already been subjected to severe tests, which have proved its usefulness and that some Berlin motor huses are being altered so that they may run on a compressed hydrogen-air mixture. S'o lar the full details of this new invention have not beeii made pujbiic, but it is reported that m'any patents have been taken 9!^ respect of various engine parts, and that a company is being formed to expjoit them in' Great Britain and ^?.°9.?h9u^ the Empire. For the present this liew 'development may be looked upon as a novelty which has excited the jnterest 'and gained the approval of ihany fechnicians, and 6ne ^hose Ujitimate consequences it is impossible. to foresee. LAl—