Technology creating more efficient engines

Below are the details from Sustainability Matters' recent interview with Alexander Chabry, the managing director of Impulse Engine Technology, where he discusses his company's engine technology, how it works and how it could revolutionise the motor vehicle industry.

SM: Can you tell us about the negative pressure supercharging (NPS) engine and the impulse emission vaporiser (IEV) muffler that you are working on?

IET: NPS, which is the same as vacuum supercharging, is a 6-cycle homogenous thermal charge spark ignition (HTCSI) supercharging combustion process that uses a unique combination of mechanically simple parts and highly advanced processes to substantially improve torque, acceleration, towing power, fuel efficiency and emissions of petrol, gas and diesel engines.

Unlike other technologies, NPS does NOT need air pumps, complex parts, computers or emission controls to work; however, they may be used to enhance the NPS process. Therefore, the NPS process can be applied to both old and new vehicles. Bolt-on kits can be used to apply the NPS process to all the different makes of older vehicles. Carmakers can incorporate the NPS process into any new vehicle during manufacturing.

We have been developing the NPS process on a 360ci (6 L) Chrysler V8 engine since 1988; by December 1997, we had it working. Since this time, we have been refining the NPS process and setting up the tool to produce kits, initially for 318ci Chrysler V8 engines.

The IEV muffler is a complicated pollution control device that functions as a muffler, emissions vaporiser and power booster. The IEV muffler reduces toxic emissions to near zero, increases power and reduces noise with all vehicles from old to new, whether they use carburetion, fuel injection, gas or diesel. It can also be applied to factories to substantially reduce toxic emissions.

We initially developed the IEV muffler in 2006 as a compacted performance muffler that reduces noise and produces more power than conventional mufflers. However, the unique core design of the IEV muffler was a breakthrough in pollution control technology because we found it also reduces toxic emissions to near zero. However, due to the threat the IEV muffler presents to the catalytic converter industry and the potential for technological theft, we are keeping the internal design of the IEV muffler confidential until we find a suitable manufacturer. We will reveal the design when it goes into production.

SM: How does it make engines more efficient and how do they work with petrol and diesel engines?

IET: The NPS process improves the volumetric and thermal efficiency of petrol, gas and diesel engines by using:

• the high pressure of the waste exhaust gases to produce compressed high velocity exhaust gas (CHVEG). In order to produce a higher vacuum in the cylinder during the exhaust cycle and synchronised valve timing (SVT), it requires synchronising eight valve-timing events to trap the higher vacuum in the cylinder and move it to the intake cycle in order to allow the higher vacuum to pull a larger intake charge into the cylinder during the intake cycle.
• the violent air turbulence generated by the higher vacuum and hot air induction (HAI) to produce HTCSI combustion, which produces a much faster cleaner burn than conventional combustion.

However, other factors are required to allow NPS and HTCSI combustion to work, such as a cold cooling system that allows the engine to run hot while keeping only the water passages cool to maintain the optimum combustion temperature in order to prevent the hotter and faster burn of (HTCSI) combustion from exceeding its optimum burn rate and igniting prematurely.

Other factors also include special ignition timing that uses less ignition advance and which gradually increases from idle to peak rpm to prevent the faster burn of (HTCSI) combustion from also igniting prematurely. Cold spark plugs are other factors that lower compression and open chamber heads to prevent faster burn of (HTCSI) combustion from, again, igniting prematurely. It is worth noting that special ignition timing and cold spark plugs are not used with diesel applications.

The IEV muffler uses a multi-thermal chamber design. As the exhaust gases pass through the chamber gases, this produces such a high temperature inside the muffler that it works like an incinerator and effectively vaporises the toxic emissions. The hotter core also increases power as a result of the higher gas speed produced in the hotter core of the muffler. Also, the unique design of the chamber reduces noise by reducing the amplitude of the sound waves while allowing the gases to flow freely through the muffler with no restriction to gas flow.

SM: Are the products ready for a mainstream market?

IET: Yes, both the NPS process and IEV muffler are ready for the mainstream market. We found that consumers want the technologies; however, some of the hurdles we currently face are the resistance of the automotive industry to accept new technology that comes from outside established companies and the threat these advanced technologies present to established products in the market such as catalytic converters and mechanically complex engines.