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Transonic Combustion put its new fuel-injection technology into this sports car, which weighs about as much as a Toyota Prius hybrid and has similar aerodynamics. It’s not a hybrid, but it gets better gas mileage than a Prius. Credit: Transonic Combustion
Transonic Combustion put its new fuel-injection technology into this sports car, which weighs about as much as a Toyota Prius hybrid and has similar aerodynamics. It’s not a hybrid, but it gets better gas mileage than a Prius.
Credit: Transonic Combustion

Improving fuel efficiency by 50% to 75%


by Sterling D. Allan
Pure Energy Systems News
March 9, 2010

Over the years, as we have featured various ultra-efficiency designs for improving internal combustion fuel consumption rates, one of the key arguments put forth by skeptics and detractors (and paid disinformants), has been that the laws of physics set limits on how much energy can be gleaned from fuel. "If such improvements were possible, don't you think the automobile manufacturers, with their billions of dollars and top scientists would have discovered it long ago?"

Now they will have a harder time balking at claims of fuel efficiency improvement in the range of 50 to 70 percent, because now such a technology has arrived at the gilded threshold of recognition by the U.S. government and the mainstream media.

Transonic Combustion has a proprietary process that involves a catalyst and a process that brings the fuel to the "supercritical state" prior to injection into the cylinders, so that no droplets remain, and essentially all the fuel is burned, doing away with any waste. In the TSCi™ fuel-injection systems, very little energy is wasted as heat because it goes primarily to expansion in the cylinders. In so doing, the process yields improvements in mileage between 50 and 75 percent, along with a significant reduction in emissions. And this has been documented by rigorous scientific study.

The company was featured as a finalist at the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA-E) Energy Innovation summit held in Washington, DC, March 1-3, 2010. The summit featured technologies that ARPA-E has either awarded grants to, or that were finalists in their selection process.

Now the automobile industry has can no longer hide behind the excuse of "limitations of physics". They have carefully maintained the appearance for all these years that their engines are approaching maximum theoretical efficiency. Now we can see that this is not even close to the truth.

Transonic Combustion estimates that the cost of their fuel delivery system will be comparable to a high end fuel injection system. They are targeting model year 2014 for widespread vehicle implementation.

Ironically, the company has been funded in part by Venrock (owned by the Rockefeller family). [2]

I have passed this technology by the New Energy Congress to see about adding it to our Top 100 Clean Energy Technologies listing. I think it belongs at least in the top 20. That question led to an interesting and healthy Debate by NEC members.

Contents

Official Website

How it Works

A comparison between the TSCi™ process (left) and regular spark-ignited combustion (right)
A comparison between the TSCi™ process (left) and regular spark-ignited combustion (right)

Transonic’s injection system varies from direct injection in two ways: it uses supercritical fluids and doesn’t require a spark to ignite the fuel. The supercritical fluid mixes quickly with air when it’s injected into the cylinder. Once the fuel is injected, heat and pressure are enough to cause combustion without a spark (similar to what happens in diesel engines), which also helps ensure fast, uniform combustion.

According to this article: “A supercritical fluid is any substance above its critical temperature and critical pressure. In the supercritical area there is only one state-of-the-fluid and it possesses both gas- and liquid-like properties.”

A substance goes supercritical when it is heated beyond a certain thermodynamic critical point so that it refuses to liquefy no matter how much pressure is applied. [3]

Think about taking a gas like air and compressing it to a very high pressure. As you compress it, there are more and more molecules in the container, making it denser and denser. Eventually it would liquefy. But by keeping the temperature high, it stays in a state between a liquid and a gas. [4]

The novel SC injection systems, which Rocke calls “almost drop-in” units, include “a GDI-type,” common-rail system that incorporates a metal-oxide catalyst which breaks fuel molecules down into simpler hydrocarbon chains, and a precision, high-speed (piezoelectric) injector whose resistance-heated pin places the fuel in a supercritical state as it enters the cylinder. [5]

See the SAE article for additional particulars on how this technology works, including a discussion of ignition timing and the 13:1 compression sweet spot.

Test Results

A comparison of standard direct injection of liquid fuel and Transonic’s novel supercritical injection process (as viewed through an optical engine fitted with a quartz window) shows that the new TSCi™ fuel-delivery system does not create fuel droplets. [1]
A comparison of standard direct injection of liquid fuel and Transonic’s novel supercritical injection process (as viewed through an optical engine fitted with a quartz window) shows that the new TSCi™ fuel-delivery system does not create fuel droplets. [1]

Company engineers have doubled the fuel efficiency numbers in dynamometer tests of gas engines fitted with the company’s prototype SC fuel-injection systems. A modified gasoline engine installed in a 3200-lb (1451-kg) test vehicle, for example, is getting the equivalent of 98 mpg (41.6 km/L) when running at a steady 50 mph (80 km/h) in the lab. [6] The new technology is achieving significant reductions in engine-out emissions. Some test engines reportedly generate only 55-58 g/km of CO2, a figure that is less than half the fleet average value established by the European Union for 2012. [7]


Profile: Transonic Combustion

"We’re rapidly moving from R&D into commercialization of our innovative efficiency technology that can transform personal transportation choices cost-effectively while improving quality of life. So far a number of top automotive and engine manufacturers have engaged Transonic and are advancing their powertrain plans with us directly." (as of March 9, 2010) [8]

Two automakers are currently evaluating Transonic test engines, with a third negotiating similar trials. [9]

Team (Mike3):

  • Mike Rocke, Vice President of Marketing and Business Development
  • Mike Cheiky, a physicist and serial inventor/entrepreneur
  • Michael Frick, Vice President for Engineering

Cheiky founded several biofuel and battery start-ups such as Zinc Matrix Power before establishing Transonic in 2006 to address inefficiencies in standard internal-combustion (IC) engine cycles. After the successful vetting of his radical SC fuel-injection concept at Cal Tech, he succeeded in obtaining funding from Venrock (the Rockefeller family), Canyon Partners, and Silicon Valley technology guru Vinod Khosla. [10]

The 48-employee firm is finalizing a development engine for a test fleet that will consist of somewhere between 10 and 100 vehicles, while trying to find a partner with whom to manufacture and market TSCi™ systems by 2014. [11]

In the News

  • Top Picks from the ARPA-E Summit - Transonic Combustion, based in Camarillo, CA, has developed a gasoline fuel injection system that can improve the efficiency of gasoline engines by 50 to 75 percent, beating the fuel economy of hybrid vehicles. (MIT Technology Review; March 3, 2010)
  • Supercritical fuel injection and combustion – Cheiky's aim is to generate a little-known, intermediate state of matter—a so-called supercritical (SC) fluid—which he and his co-workers at Camarillo, CA-based Transonic Combustion believe could markedly increase the fuel efficiency of next-generation power plants while reducing their exhaust emissions. (SAE; Jan. 11, 2010)

Other Coverage

Comments

See Discussion page

Or feel free to enter comments down below.

Contact

http://www.tscombustion.com/contact.html

CA – Ventura County Office
Transonic Combustion, Inc.
461 Calle San Pablo
Camarillo, CA 93012
Tel: (805) 465-5100
Fax: (805) 484-8577

MI – Oakland County Office
Transonic Combustion, Inc.
800 West Long Lake Road Suite 120
Bloomfield Township, MI 48302
Tel: (248) 792-9384
Fax: (248) 792-9476

email: info@tscombustion.com

See also


FUEL EFFICIENCY

FUEL TREATMENT TECHNOLOGIES

ELECTRIC VEHICLES

VEHICLE HARDWARE MODIFICATIONS

AWARDS

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