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MIT Gas Saver: Ethanol Turbocharger

By Joe Benton
ConsumerAffairs.com

October 25, 2006

Ethanol • Soaring Egg Prices Blamed on Costs of Fuel, Feed, Chicks • Chicken Prices Headed Up, Tyson Warns • Ethanol Gives Consumers Half a Loaf, Bakers Say • Ethanol-Blended Fuel Blamed for Boaters' Problems • Sales of Ethanol-Burning Cars Up 10% • How Green Can Your Drive Get? • Ethanol Producers Say Rising Food Prices Not Their Fault • Ethanol Driving Up Meat Prices, Congress Told • MIT Gas Saver: Ethanol Turbocharger • Ford Flex-Fuel Claims Challenged • Tests Find Ethanol Cleaner But Not Cheaper • Ethanol Lobbying Disclosures Questioned • Ethanol Benefits Questioned • Chrysler to Step Up Flex Fuel Production • Automakers Want More Ethanol Pumps • Ethanol Increases Consumers' Fuel Bills • Ethanol A Waste, Study Concludes • Ethanol Bandwagon Rolls on in the U.S. Senate

Injecting a little ethanol into an engine under heavy acceleration could improve the fuel economy by 20 percent to 30 percent, according to a team of researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The team is working on a system that would allow automakers to use smaller engines, thus reducing weight and improving fuel economy. Adding an ethanol injection system would cost less than adding a hybrid engine.

"To have a big impact on reducing oil consumption, one needs a low-cost way of improving efficiency, so a lot of people buy the car," said Daniel Cohn, senior research scientist at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Cohn said that an ethanol injection system might cost about $1,000 per engine and that vehicles using the system could be in mass production by 2011.

"We view it as a very important near-term way to reduce oil consumption," Cohn said.

The MIT plan uses small amounts of ethanol and a turbocharger which is added to produce more power. The ethanol injection system with the turbocharger would give a driver more power than a conventional engine of the same size.

The higher pressures and temperatures of a turbocharged engine can lead to engine knock, which occurs when the fuel and air in the engine explode prematurely, hurting performance and potentially damaging the engine.

Cohn said his group's technology avoids that problem by injecting ethanol into the engine when knock is likely to occur. The ethanol vaporizes and cools the fuel-air mixture, keeping it from exploding until the engine is ready.

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