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Title:
AN OIL SEPARATOR FILTER APPARATUS FOR USE WITH AN APPARATUS FOR COMBUSTION ENHANCER
Document Type and Number:
WIPO Patent Application WO/1998/026163
Kind Code:
A1
Abstract:
An oil separator filter apparatus to be used with an apparatus for combustion enhancer as disclosed in PCT/SG96/00022. Hydrocarbon gas vapours vented from the fuel tank and positive crankcase and ambient air are mixed with liquid mixture within the apparatus for the said combustion enhancer, causing dissociation of molecular chains of hydrocarbon gas vapours, which are then exposed to negative electron ions forming negatively charged pre-oxidised hydrocarbon gas vapours, for mixing with air and fuel in the combustion chamber of an engine. The oil separator filter traps oil residue and carbon particles coming from the positive crankcase together with the hydrocarbon gas vapours, thus prevents oil residue and carbon particles from contaminating and interfering with the liquid mixture in the apparatus for combustion enhancer. Unburnt oil vapour is caught in the filter members, coalesces into droplets and flow back into the internal combustion engine, for further combustion.

Inventors:
WATASE HIDEAKI (SG)
DALUPAN ROMULO VALLEJOS (PH)
TAN SIEW LAY (SG)
Application Number:
PCT/SG1997/000033
Publication Date:
June 18, 1998
Filing Date:
August 13, 1997
Export Citation:
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Assignee:
WATASE HIDEAKI (SG)
DALUPAN ROMULO VALLEJOS (PH)
TAN SIEW LAY (SG)
International Classes:
C10L1/02; F01M13/00; F01M13/04; F02B1/02; F02B77/04; F02M25/00; F02M25/08; F02M25/12; F02M27/04; (IPC1-7): F01M13/04
Foreign References:
EP0601683A11994-06-15
US3406669A1968-10-22
Attorney, Agent or Firm:
W.P. LAI & COMPANY (P.O. Box 0399, Singapore 4, SG)
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Claims:
CLAIMS
1. An oil separator filter apparatus consisting of a housing sealably comprising of ; an inlet connected to an engine positive crankcase vent; a first outlet connected to combustion enhancer apparatus; a second outlet connected to the internal combustion engine; a single plate deflector mounted on the base of the housing; and two or more oil separator filter; characterised in that unburnt oil, oil base vapours, carbon particles, unburnt and partially burnt hydrocarbon gas vapours and hydrogen radicals are vented from the engine positive crankcase through the inlet, said hydrocarbon gases and hydrogen radicals are passed through the oil separator filters, separated from the unburnt oil, oil base vapours, carbon particles, and recovered for introduction into combustion enhancer to produce negatively charged preoxidized hydrocarbon gas vapours, combined with the air in the air induction system, thereby improving the mass of air to mass of fuel ratio in an internal combustion engine; said unburnt oil, oil base vapours and carbon particles are trapped by the filter, said unburnt oil coalesces into oil droplets, collects at the bottom of the housing and flows through the second outlet back into the internal combustion engine.
2. An apparatus as claimed in Claim 1 characterised by an oil separator filter means for separating and recovering hydrocarbon gas vapours and radical hydrogen gases from unburnt oil, oil base vapours and carbon particles connected to inlet of a combustion enhancer apparatus.
3. An apparatus as claimed in Claim I characterised wherein said an oil separator filter is connected between the engine positive crankcase vent and the combustion enhancer apparatus.
4. An apparatus as claimed in Claim 1 characterised in that the oil separator filter includes an oil filter to trap oil and prevent oil accumulation in the combustion enhancer apparatus.
5. An apparatus as claimed in Claim 1 characterised in that the oil separator filter includes means for trapping oil and carbon particles and vented engine oil residues from the engine crankcase, preventing accumulation of carbon buildup.
6. An apparatus as claimed in Claim 1 characterised in that the trapping means comprises a plurality of filter members forming a tortuous path for the hydrocarbon and radical hydrogen gas vapours.
7. An apparatus as claimed in any one of the preceding claims characterised in that the oil separator filter members utilises oil fill corrugated paper material or 3M type P filter material.
8. An apparatus as claimed in Claim 1 characterised wherein a single plate deflector which divides the filter members allowing gases to pass on the rear side of the said plate.
9. An apparatus as claimed in Claim 1 characterised wherein hydrocarbon gas vapours and radical hydrogen gases from the positive crankcase are recovered to form negatively charged preoxidized hydrocarbon gas vapours.
10. An apparatus as claimed in any one of the preceding characterised in that the mass of air to mass of fuel ratio in an internal combustion engine is improved.
Description:
AN OIL SEPARATOR FILTER APPARATUS FOR USE WITH AN APPARATUS FOR COMBUSTION ENHANCER FIELD OF INVENTION This invention relates to an oil separator filter apparatus to be used with an apparatus filed under PCT/SG96/00022 to improve the mass of air to mass of fuel ratio in an internal combustion engine. Recovered hydrocarbon gas vapours and radical hydrogen gas from the engine positive crankcase together with ambient air are mixed with the liquid mixture in the apparatus, dissociating the molecular chains of hydrocarbon gas vapours producing gas vapours of high octane hydrocarbon properties and hydroxide gases with oxygen gases. By charging negative electron ions to these gas vapours, negatively charged pre-oxidized hydrocarbon gas vapours are formed to mix with air and fuel in the combustion chamber of an engine. The negatively charged pre-oxidized hydrocarbon gas vapours improves the mass of air to mass of fuel ratio of an internal combustion engine.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The internal combustion engine is used to convert the chemical energy of fuel into heat energy and then converts this heat energy into useful mechanical energy. This is achieved by combining the appropriate amounts of air and fuel and burning the mixture in an enclosed cylinder at a controlled rate.

An average mass of air to mass of fuel ratio of good combustion for Petrol engine is about 15 parts of air to 1 part of fuel by weight. Diesel engine operates on a much wider mass of air to mass of fuel ratio, since air intake is not regulated on most diesel engines. Ratio may range from about 20: 1 to about 100: 1. This fact, plus the high compression of the diesel engine, makes it a fuel efficient engine.

But the ratio of air and fuel becomes insufficient due to the poor quality of oxygen and the different grades of fuel entering into the engine. These are the main factors that affect energy loss of an internal combustion engine.

The efficiency of existing internal combustion engine illustrated in Figure 1, in converting the potential energy in fuel to mechanical energy is only about 33%. Of the available fuel energy in an engine, about one-third is loss, due to the following factors: The main factor is pyrolysis, which is caused by the mixing of undesirable gas compounds with hydrocarbon gas vapours vented out from the positive crankcase vent and the fuel tank vent connected to the air induction system, of an engine. The mixing of undesirable gas compound upsets the ratio of oxygen for combustion process.

The other factor is loss of hydrocarbon gas vapours vented out to the atmosphere from the fuel tank vent, and the positive crankcase vent. These factors contribute to the loss of energy and the imbalance of the mass of air to mass of fuel ratio. The remaining one-third energy loss of hydrocarbon gas vapours is through the emission of unburnt hydrocarbon in the exhaust system. These energy losses result to poor combustion.

Accordingly, it is desirable to provide an apparatus to produce negatively charged pre- oxidized hydrocarbon gas vapours to combine with the air and fuel mixture in the combustion chamber to improve the mass of air to mass of fuel ratio of an internal combustion engine.

In addition, the ambient air consisting of nitrogen and oxygen (N+02), upon mixing with the negatively charged pre-oxidized hydrocarbon gas vapours (HC + OH-+ o-2) combined with the vaporised hydrocarbon fuel (HC) in the combustion chambers, increasing oxygen content and additional pre-oxidized hydrocarbon to enhance combustion process by promoting greater expansion of the pistons during combustion process. After combustion, the emission of exhaust chemical formation have lower counts of hydrocarbons (<HC), carbon monoxide (<CO), lower oxides of nitrogen (<NOX), lower carbon particulate (<CP) with more compound gases of carbon dioxide (COZ), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), sulfur dioxide (SO2) and extra oxygen (02)- Here is the equation that shows what happens after combustion in an engine with the negatively charged pre-oxidized hydrocarbon gas vapours from a combustion enhancer apparatus. I <BR> <BR> IlC+N+02+(HC+OBr+0<HC+<CO+<NO+<CP+COz+NOz+H2Q+SO z+02 SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is an oil separator filter apparatus for the treatment of gases in a positive crankcase ventilation system of an internal combustion engine in which the gases containing unburnt hydrocarbon gas vapours and radical hydrogen gases which can be utilised for combustion as well as trapping oil and oil fumes and other gas compounds which are drawn from the crankcase of an engine and normally directed to the air induction system of the engine for re-circulation through and for further combustion process in the engine.

The apparatus comprises a housing which sealably encloses a gas filtering media, which is capable of separating the oil and other compound materials from the hydrocarbon gas vapours and radical hydrogen gases. The first inlet means is arrange in the housing to direct the gas flow to the filtering media from the internal combustion engine into the combustion enhancer apparatus. The hydrocarbon gas vapours and hydrogen gases pass through the filtering media, exits as treated gases through the outlet means, then fed into the inlet means of the combustion enhancer apparatus for processing before being fed back into the air induction system in an internal combustion engine.

The main objective is to provide an oil separator filter apparatus for filtering the venting positive crankcase blow-by engine oil in vapour form, unbumt carbon particles and compound substances from radical hydrogen gases and hydrocarbon gas vapours, all of which are drawn from the positive crankcase, the filter trapping the oil, unbumt carbon particles and compound substances, allowing radical hydrogen gases and hydrocarbon gas vapours to separate. The oil in the filter will then coalesce into oil droplets, collect at the bottom of the filter apparatus and flow back to engine by a second outlet. These separated gas vapours are recovered to combine with the liquid mixture in the combustion enhancer apparatus to produce methane, ethane hydrocarbon, hydroxides and oxygen gas vapours to form a negatively charged pre- oxidized hydrocarbon gas vapours in a combustion enhancer apparatus for internal combustion engine.

Particularly, but not limited, for improving the mass of air to mass of fuel ratio of an internal combustion engine.

The recovered radical hydrogen gases and the hydrocarbon gas vapours from the positive crankcase together with hydrocarbon gas vapours vented from fuel tank are mixed into a liquid mixture containing the lowest molecular weight alcohol; methanol, CH3 OH and ethanol, C2H3 OH which is ideal as it can be easily converted to all-gas state; the alcohol possesses radical hydrogen which are readily dissociated and which contain organic oxygen that can be easily combined with introduced hydrocarbon, radical hydrogen, and oxygen gases and vapours to produce pre-oxidized hydrocarbon gas vapours to be charged with negative electron ions to form into negatively charged pre-oxidized hydrocarbon gas vapours.

The second objective is to combine these recovered hydrocarbon gas vapours with the liquid mixture and transform into methane and ethane hydrocarbon gas vapours which is used for pre-igniting the vaporized fuel in the combustion chamber of an internal combustion engine.

The third objective is to combine these recovered radical hydrogen gas vapours into the liquid mixture and transform into a hydroxide gas to combine with the oxygen introduced in the liquid mixture for increasing the oxygen content of the mass of air introduced into the combustion chamber to improve the ignition of fuel in an internal combustion engine.

The hydrocarbon gas vapours and hydrogen gases are forced to flow through the filtering media which collects the oil substances, unbumt carbon particles and compound materials so as to cause the oil substances to return back into the crankcase and retaining other compound materials.

The continuous use of the oil separator filter apparatus appears to separate and trap the oil residue and carbon particles from the vented gases from the blow-by and preventing the oil residue from contaminating and interfering with the liquid mixture in the combustion enhancer apparatus.

These and other objects of the invention will become apparent in light of the accompanying specifications, drawings and claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS An embodiment of the invention descended in PCT/SG96/00022 will now be described to illustrate the working of the oil separator filter apparatus with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is an illustration of energy loss in a typical combustion engine.

Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of the apparatus being an embodiment of the invention.

Figure 3 is a sectional view of an oil separator filter of the embodiment of Figure 2.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION The oil separator filter apparatus has to be used with the apparatus described in PCT/SG96/00022. The apparatus is connected and takes hydrocarbon gas vapours from the fuel tank vent, radical hydrogen gases with hydrocarbon gas vapours from the positive engine crankcase vent and from the ambient air. The hydrocarbon gas vapours, radical hydrogen gases and ambient air are mixed and bubbled through the liquid mixture in the apparatus venting out gases of methane, ethane, hydroxide and oxygen gases which are then exposed to a negative ionization process adding negatively charged ion to these gas vapours and then fed into the air induction system mixing with the introduced air supply for combustion process of an internal combustion engine.

While these invention is susceptible of embodiment in many different forms there is shown in the drawings and will be described herein in detail, several specific embodiments, with the understanding the present disclosure is to be considered as an exemplification of the principles of the invention and is not intended to limit the invention to the embodiments illustrated.

An internal combustion engine system is shown, is schematic, in Figure 2 engine 100 maybe of any known configuration. Positive crankcase ventilation (PCV) valve 150 is arranged on the engine 100, which includes the crankshaft crankcase in the configuration of Figure 1, the PCV venting port 14 is venting blow-by gases into the atmosphere and other configuration, the venting port of the PCV is connected into the air induction system (not shown).

The positive crankcase blow-by fumes which are drawn by the suction of the air induction system of the engine contain, in addition to the unbumt and partially burnt hydrocarbon gas vapours, oil base vapours and compound substances in the internal lubrication area of the engine, as well as air containing oxygen, the oil-base, compound gas vapours and particulate matters which are potentially damaging to the engine components on the air induction system and, as well, creating oxygen dilution and incomplete combustion and can therefore contribute to pyrolysis, detonation, carbon build-up and poor combustion process of an engine. The oil separator filter 160 is shown in Figure 3. The oil separator filter comprises a housing 400, having a vapour inlet 402 and vapour outlet 404. A single plate deflector 406, divides the two filter sets allowing gas to pass on the sides and top side of the said plate. Both filter sets have a lower primary circular shape filter holder 407 and lower secondary filter holder 408 with adjacent features upper primary 409 and upper secondary 410, filter holders. The tubular shape primary filter 411 and secondary filter 412, on both sets absorbs oil residue as oil proceeds towards the lower primary holder 413 and lower secondary holder 414 each having at least four oil passages. Most of the oil residue are drawn back to the engine through pipe 402. Preferably 3M type P or oil fill paper material for these filters.

The vented gas vapour mixtures of blow-by hydrocarbon and radical hydrogen gases, processed through the combustion enhancer apparatus, are formed into negatively charged pre-oxidized hydrocarbon gas vapours, which reacts to improve the air and fuel entering the combustion chamber for a more efficient use of this blow-by gas vapours instead of directly mixing with the air flowing through the air induction system, which decreases the oxygen ratio. The result is the opposite if the process use conventional means of venting out the gases into the atmosphere which pollutes the air in our environment and brings wastage of energy.

From the positive crankcase ventilation, the oil separator filter 160, further traps oil residue, unbumt carbon particles, oil base compounds and particulate matter and allows the flow of radical hydrogen and hydrocarbon gas vapours into the apparatus 140, thus preventing oil residue from entering the apparatus 140. Oil consumption is also reduced since the residual oil returns back into the engine for further combustion.

The embodiment of the invention described is not to be construed as limitative. For example, although shown in Figure 1 used with a venting out positive crankcase blow- by is equally of use with a positive crankcase blow-by vent connected into the air induction system in an internal combustion engine.