View Single Post
Old 02-26-2008, 08:27 PM   #11 (permalink)
oldschool
EcoModding Lurker
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Iowa
Posts: 47
Thanks: 0
Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post
Ok, When Pogue built his vaporized carb, oil companies distilled gas so it consisted of mostly short chain hydrocarbon molecules and was known as well head gas. These light hydrocarbons vaporized easily, lending to the high mileage that he acchieved. Ogle who got 100 mpg also used well head gas.

Shortly after Pogue went public with his carb, the oil companies decided it was necessary to begin refining the gas thru catalytic cracking, plus the addition of lead to the gas( I suspect) led to the failure of vaporized carbs as when the gas vaporized the lead would be left to coat the heat exchanging surfaces of the carb, and effectively insulate them.

Gas now is comprised of over 4000 hydrocarbon chain lengths; each becoming gaseous at a different temperature. There are also additives that vaporize at over 1000 degrees, that like lead did , will coat heat exchanging surfaces, and insulate them over time , rendering the vaporizer ineffective.

There was one class of college students that replicated the Ogle system and it did perform as his did at first. Eventually the system failed and they also found that they couldn't add any new fuel to the system. Upon removal of the gas tank they realized that it was filled with sludge and corrosive heavy end hydrocarbons that had not vaporized while they were driving.

This and the fact that there are more then 26 different blends of gas across the country that would have to be compensated for, explains a good part of why the catalytic converter was made mandatory on every new car produced. Unless one is willing to gamble with a device that produces under the hood temps of 1500 degrees before combustion, there is not much chance of fully vaporizing and cracking the fuel to produce high mileage.

Those that had intial sucess with their cat crackers and got 70-100+mpg have stated that the end resulting gas that was actually burned for power had the consistancy of methane.

  Reply With Quote