| WO1997044581A1 | 1997-11-27 |
| EP0846847A1 | 1998-06-10 | |||
| EP0601683A1 | 1994-06-15 | |||
| US3557763A | 1971-01-26 |
| 1. | A method for enhancing combustion of a mixture of air and hydrocarbon fuel in a combustion chamber of an internal combustion engine, comprising the steps of: preparing combustion enhancing agent composed of alcohol, turpentine and distilled water; mixing air with said combustion enhancing agent; preparing combustion enhancement gas composed of vapor components of said combustion enhancing agent and air ; applying a negatively charged electric field to said combustion enhancement gas withlk to 30k volts ; and supplying the negatively charged combustion enhancement gas to said combustion chamber. |
| 2. | A combustion enhancing apparatus for internal combustion engine having a fuel tank and a combustion chamber adapted to effect combustion of a mixture of air and hydrocarbon fuel, comprising: a casing having a storage chamber for storing combustion enhancing agent composed of alcohol, turpentine and distilled water ; an air inlet to introduce air into said storage chamber ; mixing means mounted on said air inlet to mix said air with said combustion enhancing agent to produce combustion enhancement gas ; negative electric field applying means for applying a negatively charged electric field to said combustion enhancement gas withlk to30k volts; and an outlet formed in said casing to supply said negatively charged combustion enhancement gas to said combustion chamber. |
| 3. | A combustion enhancing apparatus according to claim 2, in which said combustion enhancing agent is composed of 5 to 50 % by weight of alcohol, 2 to 15 % by weight of turpentine and remaining said distilled water. |
| 4. | A combustion enhancing apparatus according to claims 2 or 3, in which said mixing means comprises a mixing tube extending from said inlet and having its bottom end formed with a mixing chamber. |
| 5. | A combustion enhancing apparatus according to claim 4, in which said air inlet is connected to said fuel tank. |
| 6. | A combustion enhancing apparatus according to claim. 4, in which said mixing means further comprises an impeller operatively disposed in said mixing chamber. |
| 7. | A combustion enhancing apparatus according to claims 2 or 3, in which said negative electric field applying means comprises a. corona discharge chamber formed above said storage chamber, and at least one discharge electrode means extending into said corona discharge chamber to effect a negative potential corona discharge therein. |
2. Description of the Related Art Most fuel burning apparatus in use today is designed to burn particular fuels such as gasoline, diesel fuel or LPG to obtain power output to propel vehicles. In these vehicles, combustion efficiency is low and unburned constituents such as hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide as well as nitrogen oxides are contained in exhaust gases, thereby causing serious air pollution in the world. Up to now, various attempts have been made to improve the combustion efficiency of the internal combustion engines, including lean air/fuel mixture or exhaust gas recirculation systems in which a portion of exhaust gases is recirculated to combustion chambers of the engines. However, none of these
methods provide effective solutions to undesired emissions of harmful compounds and to lower fuel economy.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for enhancing fuel combustion in internal combustion engines to obtain improved fuel economy and reduce pollutants in exhaust gases.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for improving combustion efficiency thereby to provide an improved fuel economy while attaining remarkable reduction of unburned, toxious compounds in exhaust gases in gasoline engines, diesel engines and LPG engines.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a preferred embodiment of a combustion enhancing apparatus combined with an internal combustion engines; and Fig. 2 is a cross sectional view of the combustion enhancing apparatus shown in Fig. 1.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring to the drawings, there is shown in Fig. 1 an internal combustion engine 10 representative of gasoline engines, diesel engines, LPG engines etc. The internal combustion engine 10 may also be of the type including Wankel type rotary engines. In Fig. 1, the engine 10 comprises air filter 12, an air intake passage 14, an intake manifold 16, a throttle valve 18, a combustion chamber 20 and a piston 22 slidaly disposed in the combustion chamber 20. As is well known in the art, flow rate of intake air is controlled by throttle valve 18 in dependence on the load on a vehicle, viz., an angular position of an accelerator pedal (not shown) and supplied to combustion chamber 20, in which intake air is mixed with fuel such as gasoline, diesel fuel and LPG to provide an air/fuel mixture.
According to an important feature of the present invention, intake air is mixed with a combustion enhancing gas containing negatively charged reactants to promote combustion of air/fuel mixture in combustion chamber 20. To this end, the internal combustion engine 10 is supplied with the combustion enhancing gas from a combustion
enhancing apparatus 24 via a connecting pipe 23.
In Fig. 2, the combustion enhancing apparatus 24 comprises a casing 30, which includes a storing chamber 28 for storing a combustion enhancing agent 26 composed of 5-50 % of ethanol or methanol, 2 to 15 % of turpentine and remaining distilled water.
The casing 30 has a feed supply port 32, an air inlet 34 having a charcoal filter 35 connected to a fuel tank (not shown) or crankcase 21 via a blow by gas pipe (not shown) to introduce fuel vapor or blow-by gases into combustion enhancing agent 26 via an air mixing pipe 36. The air mixing pipe 36 has its lower end provided with an air mixing section 38 including an air mixing chamber 40, an impeller 42 disposed in air mixing chamber 40 to stir air into combustion enhancing agent 26, and a plurality of air injection nozzles 44. A light weight vapor control plate 46 is placed on the surface of the combustion enhancing agent 26 to cover the surface thereof for controlling the evaporation rate of the combustion enhancing agent 26. The casing 30 has a gas collector chamber 48 to collect a combustion enhancement gas 47 composed of a mixture of the vapor of the combustion enhancing agent 26 and the air mixed therein. The
casing 30 also has an electric field application chamber 50 formed above gas collection chamber 48, and an electronic discharging circuit 54 mounted on an upper portion of the casing 30 adjacent electric field. application chamber 50. A plurality of electric discharge needles 56 extend into electric field application chamber 50 and are connected to electric discharging circuit 54.
The electric discharging circuit 54 may comprise a corona discharge circuit which is well known and which produces output voltages vanging from-lk to-30k volts to apply a negatively charged electric field in electric field application chamber 50 for thereby negatively charging oxygen, OH-etc. contained in the combustion enhancement gas 47. The negatively charged combustion enhancement gas 47 is then emitted from an outlet 52 and supplied to combustion chamber 20 via connecting pipe 23 and air intake passage 14.
With the construction discussed above, when the engine 10 starts, the intake manifold 16 becomes lower in pressure than atmospheric pressure.
In this instance, the gas collector chamber 48 becomes lower in pressure than the atmospheric
pressure. Under these circumstances, the mixing pipe 36 sucks air through the inlet 34 and mix the air with the combustion enhancing agent 26 at the mixing section 38. In this case, the gas collector chamber 48 collects the combustion enhancement gas coming from the storage chamber 28. The combustion enhancement gas 47 then enters the electric field application chamber 50 and is negatively charged by the discharge needles 56. Thereafter, the negatively charged combustion enhancement gas 47 is fed through connecting pipe 23, the air intake passage 14 and the intake manifold 16 into the combustion chamber 20. The negatively charged combustion enhancement gas is mixed with air/fuel mixture in the combustion chamber 20. Since, in this instance, the oxygen and other combustible fuel components have contained in the combustion enhancement gas negatively charged potential, the flame propagation of the combustion gas in the combustion chamber 20 is remarkably increased.
Accordingly, explosion pressure increases in the combustion chamber 20 to provide increased power output. Since, further, the flame propagation of the combustion gas in the combustion chamber 20 becomes high, the unburned constituents in the
exhaust gases are remarkably eliminated to reduce air pollution.
It will now be appreciated from the foregoing description that according to the present invention a remarkable fuel economy is obtained while unburned toxic compounds are effectively reduced in the exhaust gases.
The representative embodiment discussed above is illustrative of the invention, but other modifications and variations are within the scope of the following claims.