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Old 03-01-2021, 11:57 AM   #15 (permalink)
Isaac Zachary
High Altitude Hybrid
 
Join Date: Dec 2020
Location: Gunnison, CO
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Avalon - '13 Toyota Avalon HV
90 day: 40.45 mpg (US)

Prius - '06 Toyota Prius
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I think a lot aren't getting my idea.

Air is about 80% nitrogen and 20% oxygen.

The goal here would be to make an system that supplies 80% CO2 and 20% O2. The CO2 is an inert gas, just as nitrogen is an inert gas. The goal is NOT to make a highly oxygen enriched intake charge. The goal is NOT to make an extremely low oxygen level intake charge. Just keep it at 20% along with 80% inert gases like CO2.

CO2 is not hard to produce in an internal combustion engine. It's free. It's the product of burning hydrocarbons with oxygen. So is water. So the engine will continuously be supplying more than enough CO2 and water than we'll ever need. The main disadvantage is that it would require substantially more cooling.

The O2 would be the hard stuff to produce. O2 air separators are expensive, and require substantial power. But just like anything, this would start out first as an experiment. The question is, could the benefits of not having to deal with NOx outweigh the efficiency penalty of separating O2 out of the air. If that could be established, then the question becomes if cost can be reduced enough to make it feasible for mass production.
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