Chen Engine, a more efficient and cleaner engine

[Chengine]

A twelve volt operated air compressor

[Tim.Wright]

Just out of interest, have you calculated the power requirements of this compressor. I guess it would consume a fair bit of power given that its worki g against cylinder pressures and would need a pretty high flow rate.

[Chengine]

The power requirement highly depends on the volume of air and pressure you must inject.
If you check back, I have done one case for 2 liter engine. I use a commercially available air compressor for my calculation.

For the 250 CC Honda one cylinder 4 valves CBR 250 engine one can easily calculate how much air is needed. I must advise you to turn down the fuel metering screw when you install this gadget on the the engine, as the engine may idle at red line(this time, I am joking) if you do not turn down fuel supply. When I say 50% gas saving at idle, I am conservative. There is also ECU
mapping you have to worry about. But in general it is not really hard project, if you just want to check idle performance.

I also must advice potential self-doer, I was told any modification to the engine voids warranty.

Chengine

[Greg Locock]

We all have seen diesel trucks leave their engine running at truck stops. Why? I only find that answer recently. It is cheaper for them to leave it on for 1-2 hours than to shut off and restart again, especially in winter. Correct me if I am wrong. The 18 wheeler burns 1 gallon of Diesel in 1.5 hours idling. If that is what makes my cab warm and avoid starting engine again. That is worth it.

On the other hand, I saw that report stating that two minutes of idling at traffic lights would have allow the car to drive for 1 mile.

It doesn't take a gallon of diesel to restart a truck engine, it does wear the engine. I'm surprised one start is 4 dollars worth of damage.

When idling a car uses about 2-3 pints per hour. At 32 mpg a car uses 1/4 of a pint per mile, so quite obviously that report was complete and utter bullshit.

[Chengine]

Please remember that a truck engine is much larger than a typical car engine. If engine size is the same, then the report is BS.
In fact I was just think of the point. However, if you factor into the size, maybe a 6.2 vs 2.0, I really do not know.

Again the reason for why they always idle at truck stop, only the truck driver can tell you. I believe because the driver cab gets cold at night and they do not mind spend up to $4 keeping it warm. If they just have a meal, then it is only $2.00. But I do believe that 1 gallon can keep a "big engine" truck idle for 1.5 hours. I am totally unfamiliar with truck diesel engine. Do they have longer warn up time than a small gasoline cars? I do not think wear and tear of the engine in start up is the reason. I maybe wrong.

These reports did not specify the exact conditions. Even if it did, I can not really recall the details. I am glad you catch me on this. As I said. correct me, please.

Chengine

[Chengine]

Greg,

When idling you say the car consumes 2-3 pints/hr. Let us say 3 pints. Thus for two minutes of idling the car consumes 0.1 pint,
OK. Now our car on freeway is only say 20 mpg, then we have closer to 0.15 pint per mile. Thus, the statement of 2 minutes of idling the gas could have driven one mile is within error bar. Not true?

So, I'll still stick with 2 minute of idling is equivalent to one mile of driving. Of course I have to say driving at 20 mpg or less average, not highway driving. (also bigger engine car has 4 pints/hr at idle?)

Thanks for correction.

Chengine

[Chengine]

Greg,

Last note. If we normalize idle fuel consumption to engine size. Diesel has about 0.7 gallon/hour but it is 6.2 liter.

Now, the gasoline car has 0.4 gallon/hr. on the surface gasoline consumes less. But when we normalize to engine size then, assuming gasoline car is 2 liter, then for Diesel it is 0.11 gallon/hr/liter(engine) vs. gasoline 0.2 gallon/hr/liter(engine). Thus Diesel at idle is substantial more efficient than gasoline car.

Assuming of course gasoline car is 2.00 liter engine. Nonetheless, Diesel still have soots problem, that requires special handling. Chen engine does not have that problem.

We all know that Diesel is more efficient and this just confirm it.

Chengine

[Greg Locock]

ok you win. you can make up numbers to support your case. i can measure numbers to support mine.

[andylaurence]

My Ford Focus consumes about 2/3rds of a litre every hour at idle, which is about 0.02l in two minutes. If the car can travel a mile on that, then it'll achieve at least 200mpg. It doesn't. It's wrong by an order of magnitude.

[Greg Locock]

Another way of looking at it is that you are claiming the same fuel rate (ie gallons per hour) for idle as for driving at 30 mph

Incidentally on my car I average 40 mpg, and use 0.15 gph at idle.

[Chengine]

I just read these reports I did not report them. I just thought them reasonable if I make up realistic cases to support them.
If I can not support them I'll remove them.

Chengine

[tathan]

While I applaud your attempts to work outside your field in a polymath stylee, there's some things that can't replace a solid grounding in thermodynamics, PV diagrams and the otto cycle.

Back to my question about the air - I think you're a few orders of magnitude out on what a little electric compressor can provide, and what you'll require:

Using zeroth order approximation I'm imagining something that can move about 1/10th as much as the engine will be needed?? Can you confirm this with any numbers? Or refute it?

[Chengine]

To all,

My primary concern is low vehicle load. For example when you stop accelerating and see a red light in front. All these time until you accelerate from stop light you are burning up gas. Please do not bring hybrid car into this discussion. YOU know it is unfair.

If we can purge the air out when cylinder is at 500-800 rpm, as I posted in previous notes, it makes major difference in city driving economy. Are you guys with me on this? Suppose you spend one hour driving in the city, it is fair to say 1/3 of time your engine is idle, either you are braking or just sitting there for the traffic. Let me see. Your average city speed is say 20 mph.
Thus, you moved 20 miles in one hour. As we agreed that every two minutes of idle the car could have moved 1 mile. The total idling time is 20 minute. And thus we could have moved 10 more miles(actually it is a geometric series, I ignore the extra).

Now, this is really important, Instead of getting your 20 miles. With Chen engine you get 25 mile (because we save only half of the gas).

If we simply have just a small compressor that cleans up the residual air during idle, The compressor only needs to purge engine turning only at 500 rpm (and 250 times a min we need to purge). The exhaust air is very low pressure, as the engine just idle, thus low gas volume. Better yet, you need only inject the air at top dead center, thus 1/10 of the volume. How little gas at 3 ATM is needed to do the job? very small. and power is even less.

As most cars are increasingly turbo charged. As soon a turbo reach operation, the air is supplied by the turbo, that is around 2000 rpm. You let turbo powered compressor do the job for you from 2000 upwards. But Turbo has already cleared all residual gas with scavenging action, thus, it is really redundant.

Bottom line. Do not think that you need purge the exhaust at 6000 rpm. at full load at 1 ATM . You only need to purge out waste gas at idle or at slow cruise. Of course, when I add the gas saving at cruise, say 1400 rpm, the gas saving is on top of that 25 mpg. You rarely do this. In any case, I expect 25% improvement in gas economy in city driving with very minimal effort to use compressor.

I think this very general discussion should be sufficient. We can argue over whether idle time is 1/3 or idle time is 1/4 and cruise time 1/2. I say, give my your manifold vacuum record, I can tell you how much gas you can save with Chen Engine.

Chengine

I do not think it is proper for me to go into detail design in this forum. We are discussing whether certain technology is possible. If you insist on bashing me on certain point my email is georgeckchen@aol.com and I will throw away flaming e-mails.

[NoDivergence]

You can't take this level of scrutiny? How are you going to be able to stand up to 4 million Mechanical Engineers looking at your theory? If what you are saying is true (and I can make any # of ideas up to say that I gain a 25% increase in efficiency), then you just disproved 200 years of experimental data, not to mention the $$$$ invested into R/D.

[Chengine]

What do you think I am doing here? There are valid criticism and the people call me BS, and I accept it.
On the other hand if people just dismiss my work purely on "Who do you think you are? Do you think you are better than all the engineers working on engines over the last 200 years?" Then I do not have to answer that.

This is exactly what happened with my wavelength locker project. It is hard enough to push project forward without people sabotaging you in the back. Yes, All the engineers reported to top management saying "He does not know what he is doing" It sound all too familiar. Actually, comparing with my wavelength locker experience you guys are really considerate. For wavelength locker I can only say "Trust me, I know what I an doing" I have even less to talk about.

By the way, I am from Silicon valley. We think new thing is always better than old things. Unfortunately for me, they only believe in all electric future. As you know Tesla is the only acceptable future car.

As you can see, I answer all criticisms. In fact, many in my audiences helped me solidifying my thought. Thank you very much.

Internal combustion engine is like a human. We have been busy improving what we eat, that is input. But we have neglected what we put out and how to manage these waste. In text books, I hardly can find a chapter truly dealing with exhaust gas.
As a human if we ignore how we dispose out waste, we will be in trouble immediately. However, ad hoc approach to exhaust gas is the norm. I am a scientist, exhaust tuning seem to be like black magic, as I completely do not understand it.

I welcome valid criticism on any of my points. I'll answer and correct them as I go along. But I reject "what do you think? we are not doing anything the past 200 years, Screw you"

Chengine