Evansville Observer: Gazette; Beloit; Running the fleet on Water

Friday, May 08, 2009

Gazette; Beloit; Running the fleet on Water

Beloit is becoming a leader in energy innovation. Click on the post for the latest.

1 comment:

Anonymous8:24 PM
Hi, Observer.

This onboard hydrogen generation business cannot result in increased overall efficiency.

Very possibly it can raise fuel economy, but from looking at the vendor websites it appears clear that vehicles so modified will not meet emission standards. These are essentially "lean burn" systems. Lean Burn causes high nitrogen oxide formation. Cars are set up to burn stoichiometrically, that is, with enough fuel to burn all the air, except for just a little bit, about 10%, excess. This is necessary to make the catalytic converter work and control nitrogen oxides at the same time.

Lean Burn engines of various sorts have been built but in every case the EPA has not allowed them to go into production. Orbital Engineering http://www.orbeng.com.au
comes to mind.

Actually, the emission limits on cars are absurdly formulated. Fuel economy with current technology can be doubled or tripled without meaningful environmental costs. The problem is a regulatory not an engineering one.

I am an engineer first, and only secondly known as "Bear Market Trader".
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