[Vwdiesel] Interesting diesel concept car.

[pmdolan at sasktel.net]

The engine is neither gas nor diesel.  It is compression ingnition (similar to what a model airplane does), but uses an aspirated charge.  I have driven Mark's (Mark Cherry, the PhD genius behind Smartplugs) van, and it works very, very well.  Officially, this is called a "plasma" ignition, since inside the ignitor tube, the catalytic surface sets off a rather intense combustion process inside that squits a plasma into the cylinder to ignite the rest of the charge.  The size and proportions of the ignitor controls the timing (when spent gasses are compressed to expose new mixture to the catalyst wire).  Ingenious, simple, reliable.

----- Original Message -----
From: Ron Schroeder <rjs at bnl.gov>
Date: Friday, February 9, 2007 12:05 pm
Subject: Re: [Vwdiesel] Interesting diesel concept car.

> I am pretty sure that it was a gas engine.
> 
> Ron Schroeder
> Brookhaven National Lab
> 631 344-4561
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- > Message: 5
> > Date: Thu, 8 Feb 2007 07:12:41 -0800 (PST)
> > From: David Cook <vwdieselbunny at yahoo.com>
> > Subject: Re: [Vwdiesel] Interesting diesel concept car.
> > To: diesel list <vwdiesel at vwfans.com>
> > Message-ID: <23063.89568.qm at web51314.mail.yahoo.com>
> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
> > 
> > Roger-
> > 
> > Were you watching the Discovery Channel last night?  I
> > saw the very beginning of the show where they featured
> > this car last night, before I went to watch Kansas
> > beat Kansas State last night.  [sigh]
> > 
> > Here is a news story I found on youtube after hearing
> > a feature on the radio this morning.  The van is a
> > diesel engine being run on 65% ethanol and 35% water. 
> > 
> > <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6q9HG9oCYI>
> > 
> > And here is the home page for smartplugs:
> > <http://www.smartplugs.com/>
> > 
> > I couldn't find much more with a bit of googling but
> > it was pretty interesting.
> > 
> > David
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