New "Shockwave" Engine Design Solves Energy Crisis

[MrJoyless]

20 to 1 it gets bought by OPEC or a major car company and never sees the light of day

this is what is going to happen no doubt, you know those 30MPG 305HP Ford engines they are rolling out this year?? Those were designed over 30 years ago by one of my fathers friends, who suddenly became a millionaire for his discovery.

When I asked him why he wasnt pissed about Ford buying his design and shelving it until the Govt forced higher fuel efficiency standards he replied, "I thought I was doing something good and that it would help Ford make new engines even more efficient."

But now we are able to see new innovations much more easily, so they are much more difficult to hide. Hopefully we wont see the same thing happen again.

 

[icame]

Why did I see the word 'engine' and automatically think of something you base a game off of and not what you use to power a car?

This

I always seem to do that

 

[Thaluikhain]

Using the word percentage, largely depends on the words used in its context.

If Engine A gets 20 MPG and Engine B gets 40 MPG, you can state:
Engine B is 100% more efficient then Engine A. or. Engine A is 50% less efficent then Engine B.
If Engine C gets 30 MPG:
Engine C is 50% more efficient then Engine A.


But I still don't see 150% in this article, only 150 years..

As someone previously mentioned, the original article doesn't say it cuts down on fuel consumption by 90%...it seems likely that someone at the Escapist tacked that on incorrectly, because that's one hell of a claim.

Also, Alt-energy is a joke.

Dy definition, almost, once something works, it's not alternative. Like the old line goes:

Q: What do you call alternative medicine that works?
A: Medicine

 

[Marik2]

Why did I see the word 'engine' and automatically think of something you base a game off of and not what you use to power a car?

LOL I came here thinking the same thing.

 

[Bruiser80]

This doesn't make any sense... how do they direct the force of the ignited gas to only one direction? Wouldn't the explosion provide an equal torque clockwise and counterclockwise thus keeping the turning stationary?

In addition, where is the compression of the fuel-air occurring? Spark/glow plug?

Implementation in 3 years? Try 10-20.

 

[BlueSinbad]

Very cool. Just out of interest, why has nobody done it before, I mean, with the huge push to waste less energy it just seems to make sense... :S

Because "Secretly" these big companies don't want to make it, because that would mean the oil companies blahblahblah wouldn't make as much money etc...BLAHBLAHBLAH ya know what I mean? The rich people want to stay rich.

 

[Rigs83]

It's not so much OPEC but car manufacturers that drag their feet on innovation. I drive a 2003 Toyota Solara SLE V6 and I had a whole in the flexpipe. It is all one piece that ran from the engine block to the catalyctic converter and if my warranty had expired or I had driven over 80,000 miles I'd be in the hook for at least $2,000 to fix it. Now it's not some amazing piece of equipment it is literally just a pipe but the charge $1,700 for it. If you bought the average $30,000 car piece by piece it would cost well over $120,000. No car company loses money in it's part's department because the prices are so inflated that anything that can make cars unbreakable is treated as a threat to the bottom line. That's was one of the reason why all the early all electric cars the companies had to make to meet California standards in the early 90's were rounded up and destroyed as soon as they had their lobbyist repeal it.
Here's a good documentary on it:
http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/Who_Killed_the_Electric_Car/70052424?trkid=2361637

 

[FarleShadow]

As do you then, bub. The article makes nothing of implying it will solve the crisis. It is, however, saying that its going to help get hybrid cars more efficient, and with the higher price of gas, that means a lot.

As for alternative energies, that isn't just solar or wind, its a broad term used to describe anything besides the use of current coal and oil methods. But hey, if we can't use oil, and alternative energy is a joke, I guess we could run off your inflated ego and sense of worth, that should buy us a few years at least.

Or nuclear, or fusion when they get it to work, or Geothermal, etc, etc. Or we could pedantically argue with someone who already agrees that the engine is a fine idea, but dislikes fantastic claims like the one IN THE TITLE OF THIS ARGUMENT. Tada!

 

[DocBalance]

Pshh, like OPEC would let that thing go into mass-production without a fight. I think we are still years away from something that will truly solve the energy crisis.

I wouldn't be so certain. Most OPEC companies are either dealing with or being threatened by that tiny little grassroots movement spreading through the Middle East that's already overthrown at least two governments. I think this one has a shot, especially if it gets combined with the miracle oil cure of Bell Bio Energy(before I get trolled, no, it's not a biofuel. Common misconception, it's an incredibly cheap and efficient way to create hydrocarbons that had its funding cut during the Stimulus bill.)

 

[Souplex]

I'm sorry, but I'm getting more annoyed about every little invention that 'solves the X crisis' while still using oil.

No people, recycling or Shockwaving isn't saving the world, its just not screwing it up as fast. End of!

90% is a pretty damn big improvement.

 

[Max_imus]

Good for him, I guess he's gonna get an awful lot of money for it from the oil industry.

Who will then a) slide it into their box labelled "things that could harm our sales" or b) burn it.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Well clearly they are smooth talkers, but there are hundreds of others claiming their engines do the same sort of miracles, is there any actual proof to this working as presumed?

The other thing that bothers me is why the hell would you hook this efficient engine to an electric generator, the power transfer will have massive power losses, unless you manage to make them with superconductors it will be about 50% loss just on that...

I'm not even sure if this is more then a scam at this point.

 

[Jamash]

I think I understand, but I'm a bit confused on some points.

The article mention gas, gas-air mixture, igniting the gas and the price of gas...

Which of these "gases" means gasoline as in the petroleum liquid, and which of them mean gas, as in a gas not a liquid?

Is the fuel for this engine gasoline or petrol, or is it entirely run on actual gas... would you fill up your car from a standard petrol pump, or would you fill it up with a gas (perhaps a non-petroleum gas like hydrogen)?

 

[minimacker]

Why did I see the word 'engine' and automatically think of something you base a game off of and not what you use to power a car?

New 'Shockwave' Engine Design Solves Energy Crysis.

 

[Corohan]

Because this is a website about games.. mostly.

 

[PatrickXD]

Assuming that it works at all?

Reduces petrol consumption by 90%? IE, 10 times more efficient than what we have now?

According to this article, current engines are only 15% efficient...doesn't this mean that this engine is 150% effective? Um...

No, it reduces consupmtion by 90%. This means that however much was used is now reduced to 1/10th. Think of it not as how much is wasted, just how much is put out versus the fuel put in. In this way we see that the previous 10 units of petrol for 1 unit of power is now reduced to 1 unit of petrol per 1 unit of power.

OT: I certainly hope that this reaches the streets, however I doubt we could be so lucky.

 

[magicmonkeybars]

oh wow, a hundred year old invention, what will they think of next.

 

[Veylon]

20 to 1 it gets bought by OPEC or a major car company and never sees the light of day

The hell with what they think. If these things are any good, the Chinese will crank them out no matter how many patents get violated. And then sell them to us.

 

[Hgame]

$4 gas? you people are lucky, here in the U.K. its £1.30-£1.40 a litre, which, factoring in exchange rates, comes out at approximately $8-$9 per gallon.

OT: this could be great, but it still wont solve the oil crisis. It's still going to run out.

 

[Danpascooch]

Ok, that's pretty cool. Why hasn't this idea been come up with before - I mean, where are the car companies' research funds going?! If it works well enough, it could be pretty sweet, and might even make alternative fuels easier to deploy - hydrogen, for example.

This doesn't make any sense... how do they direct the force of the ignited gas to only one direction? Wouldn't the explosion provide an equal torque clockwise and counterclockwise thus keeping the turning stationary?

No, the curves in the channels create vectored emissions. Think of how a wind-turbine works, or a water turbine. Similar idea.

I'm not a mechanical engineer, but I suppose it's possible that a drive shaft could also be attached to this engine to eventually transfer the energy to the wheels of a car. What's not clear is whether this shockwave engine will produce enough torque to start a heavy car moving from 0 mph, but hopefully the reduced weight of the vehicle would make that possible.

It's about powering hybrid vehicles - the idea being you use it as a generator (he says 25kW, apparently suitable for a utility or goods vehicle though I'm not sure of that) to burn your fuel more efficiently than a traditional engine does, for the purposes of generating electricity that would then be used to drive the electric motors that actually make the vehicle go. Not as a direct driver of the wheels itself. I think an aspect of this system is that it generates little torque - problematic if you're trying to shift a heavy vehicle, but fine for spinning magnets in coils!

But a wind turbine is hit by wind perpendicularly to the turbine, from what I read in the article it sounds like this ignites gas while it's sitting between two of the raised ridges.