CleanFlex Power System finds a way to burn ethanol in diesel engines
Diesel engines like to burn diesel fuel. Most, especially older ones, will also run just fine on biodiesel. But ethanol? You can't put ethanol in a diesel engine, right? According to National Corn Growers Association chairman and Nebraska corn farmer Bob Dickey, there actually is a way to mix ethanol into a diesel cycle right at the point of combustion, resulting in a diesel engine that runs cooler and is more efficient.Called CleanFlex Power System, the unusual process was developed as a way to burn more ethanol in the U.S. Currently, CleanFlex is being tested in a stationary John Deere power system, and Dickey says it's working well. In addition to the diesel fuel (which could also be biodiesel), the ethanol used in CleanFlex is cut to 60 percent with water (called EM60). You can hear Dickey talk about the system over at Domestic Fuel.
[Source: Domestic Fuel]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Tim 11:38AM (10/16/2009)
This has been done for MANY years.
http://www.alcoholinjectionsystems.com/Turbo-Diesel-Systems/c26/index.html
I was injecting water into my gasoline Dodge van WAY back in 1974 to gain power and reduce predetonation.
Cool charge = dense charge = more fuel per detonation = more power and less predetonation.
DUH, nothing to see here.... next!
(next we'll see a story on ABG about how urine reduces automobile pollution. It does? nevermind)
About diesel engines:
VegOil = Grow, harvest, squeeze, filter & burn (little heat or water req'd)
Ethanol = Grow, harvest, mill, ferment, distill, filter, burn (LOTS of heat & water req'd)
Which is more efficient as far as ICE fuels go? Common, guess...
You can use a little Plug-In electric heater to keep fuels flowing for cold weather starts and hot fuel recirculating keeps the fuel flowing & ready for injection while engine is running.
Now, guess WHO wants MORE of your tax money? (think corn)
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PabloKoh 11:42AM (10/16/2009)
Scania makes production diesel trucks now that run on E95 and ADM has been running modified ethanol diesel trucks that run on E100 in Illinois for years. The ethanol burns much more efficiently +/-35% in a diesel cycle as opposed to +/- 20% in a flexfuel engine
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Aureon Kwolek 12:26PM (10/16/2009)
CleanFlex delivers the 60-40 ethanol-water as a vapor through the air intake. It makes a diesel engine run cleaner with more power and saves over a dollar an hour in fuel costs. The ethanol-water vapor represents 15 to 30 percent of the diesel engine fuel consumption, using watered-down cheaper fuel.
This could create a much larger market for ethanol and also displace imported oil with cleaner domestic fuel.
Could this same method be used to provide supplemental renewable fuel to gasoline engines?
Etahnol-water vapor delivered through the air intake bypasses the fuel tank, the fuel pump, and the fuel lines. So there's no compatability issues.
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why not the LS2LS7? 12:55PM (10/16/2009)
Garbage.
And why do people assume a heat engine should run cooler?
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Brandon 1:12PM (10/16/2009)
The sad thing is the EPA and CARB do. They are so brainwashed into believing that NOx must be eliminated from the exhaust stream at all costs and virtually the only emissions that matter that they have chocked off all out engine, SI or diesel with EGR and retarded timings. Without all the emissions garbage CARB and EPA mandate we could probably reduce our oil consumption by 50%. LA can go to hell, the rest of the country shouldn't have to suffer terribly in-efficient emissions choked vehicles just because they decided to build a city in a geographic annomoly that traps smog.
If we didn't have such high emissions standards ruining the efficiency of our engines I bet the total emissions output in the country would be the same or lower than today just because so much less emissions would be created transporting, refining, and burning all the fuel that is wasted making engines inefficient enough to pass emissions.
why not the LS2LS7? 1:42PM (10/16/2009)
50%? No, not at all. You're deluded.
And Diesels run the coolest of all and also produce the most NOx.
NOx is more to do with peak temperatures. And high peak temperatures not only produce more NOx, but also higher momentary pressures in the cylinders, which aren't efficient anyway. They produce an impedance mismatch, and so waste energy.
Bill 2:14PM (10/16/2009)
Key words here: "National Corn Growers Association".
Yep, yet another proposed way to burn food in our vehicles, so we can keep on driving until we starve to death. We've already seen that using corn ethanol for fuel drives up the price of corn, making this staple of many world diets too expensive. It's already in doubt whether we'll continue to be able to grow enough food for the world's increasing population. Diverting food to fuel is just stupid.
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Joeviocoe 7:31PM (10/16/2009)
To hell with corn... the government subsidies have made food cheaper and less healthy. High fructose corn syrup is in everything. I have to shop at specialty health food stores just to get food that is not artificially sweetened by HFCS. Our cattle aren't lean, they are fat. Because they aren't fed a whole grain diet like evolution intended but are stuffed with feed corn. 80% of corn is grown for cattle and only about 20% is sweet corn made for human consumption.
source: documentary "KING CORN"
Look at Americans (us)! Since corn has gotten built up and pushed down our throats, we have gotten fatter and much less healthy. We won't starve if corn suffers, that is what they want you to think. We will just have to eat better not less.
And don't be fooled, Ethanol still contains less energy by the gallon than gasoline and much less than diesel or biodiesel. So your fuel economy numbers that you get on diesel, don't expect the same. So if Ethanol is half the price of diesel by the gallon, then it will cost you about the same either way.
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Byron Thomas 2:28AM (10/18/2009)
Thanks Brandon, good points. I am against CAFE standards (and some emissions regs and safety requirements) and in favor of a $1 per gallon gas tax. That would reduce total passenger miles driven, especially in SOVs. It would reduce traffic congestion, air pollution, commute times, and our dependence on foreign imports. It might even lower car insurance costs (except for my "ease up on DOT safety regs"). Yes I have heard about water injection for years, and the SCANIA "dies-ethanol" engines. If the vapors work in the intake fantastik, except, I thought "direct injection" was needed for more efficiency.
Yep, let California solve its addiction to the automobile. And bring back the 49 state VW TDI. Hell, we lost 1.5 years TDI of sales here because of CA.
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Byron Thomas 2:27AM (10/18/2009)
"""so we can keep on driving until we starve to death"""" and ""Look at Americans (us)! Since corn has gotten built up and pushed down our throats, we have gotten fatter and much less healthy""
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Hey folks, driving has made us Fat, not corn syrup. A gas tax therefore, moves towards solving that. As such, the $1 gal gas tax and a junk food tax I've proposed as "Healthy Lifestyles Tax" to help pay for Basic Health Care, before Obama did.
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