Diesel Hydrogen-Boost System/Diesel Tractor Trailer

[Ray Davis]

I'm sure that in time there will be lots of these type of products, but I would prefer to get something blessed by DD.

I know that Jon generally doesn't approve of ad-hoc addon's on our coaches. Quite often we hear of people slapping on bigger wheels, without regard to suspension design etc. I know I've heard of Jon mentioning similiar before.

Bolting something extra on the engine scares me a bit. But, again, that may be just me. It seems especially scary, given that our engines are driven by computers, which expect diesel to be running through the engine. If it's something else, shouldn't the computer know, and somehow be programmed to that fact? Lot's of unanswered questions here.


Ray

[Joe Cannarozzi]

Nice signature Ray. Glad to see you sill have your sense of humor.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

I think Ray is correct in that if the system worked as advertised, not only would DD be all over it, but Congress would likely mandate it.

But for the moment, let us assume it really works. A truck driving 100,000 miles a year at 5 mpg will use 20,000 gallons. A 50% improvement will drop that down to 13,333 gallons and at todays $4.00 per gallon costs the savings is 6,666 gallons or $26,666 dollars making the investment look like chump change.

If cars and small trucks used this device and it performed as claimed we would be back to $1.00 fuel because of supply and demand.

From an operational point of view adding something additional to the fuel supply to the engine can have consequences. When an engine has a power stroke the fuel it was designed for burns at a specific rate, and has combustion characteristics that are not harmful. When the fuel is modified such as by adding anything, whether it is gasoline, hydrogen, vegetable oil or propane lots of things are affected. Within the combustion cycle for example the fuel burn has a specific rate and pattern. The engine designers incorporate into the internal design a lot of engineering to strengthen the moving parts where necessary, to open and close valves at the correct time, to locate those valves properly, to create flow paths not only for intake air, but exhaust gasses.

The fuel an engine is designed for has a specific BTU content which is an expression of how much work can be done for a given amount of fuel. If that is changed based on the volume of fuel introduced more or less work is being performed and the timing of when that work is perfomed is also impacted. It is bad stuff for an engine to have its air fuel mixture ignite in a violent explosion for example, rather than a relatively slow steady burn in a predictable pattern.

Conversely, there are other practical issues with our computerized engines. The DDEC is monitoring numerous parameters. it not only measures the amount of fuel based on conditions, but it also times the introduction of the fuel which is akin to changing the spark timing on a gasoline engine. I cannot imagine the impact a hydrogen enriched atmosphere would have on our engines.

Yup, consider me opposed until DD blesses it. Our engines cost way too much form me to embrace a technology that cannot even pass the sniff test.