Quasiturbine tech promises engine paradigm shift

Quasiturbine and The Hydrogen economy

A 2003 report from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) reached the following conclusion: "Improving gasoline and diesel engine is the way to go. The Hydrogen car is no environmental panacea: The hydrogen fuel cell will not be better in terms of total energy use and greenhouse gas emissions by 2020". With photo-detonation, however, the internal combustion engine can be transformed into a near-term environmental solution.

So far, carmakers like GM have invested heavily in developing fuel cells to power electric motors in vehicles, while others like BMW have studied the burning of hydrogen in internal combustion engines. Excluding a nuclear source, hydrogen must be processed from some other fuel source, such as natural gas, with a corresponding loss of about 30% of the energy value of the fuel during processing. When the energy loss associated with processing is taken into account fuel cells will only be about 35% fuel-efficient or so at most. In addition, because fuel cells are generally dependent on hydrogen, there are serious issues about production, transmission and storage of hydrogen fuel that must be addressed before hydrogen fuel cells can become a generally available option.

An extensive study commissioned by the U.S. Department of Energy released in 2002, in conjunction with announcement of the "FreedomCAR" initiative, outlines the extraordinary complexity and cost of this undertaking.

While hydrogen is the "Achilles heel" of fuel cells, the Quasiturbine has no such limitations. It is a multi-fuel engine and can use existing fuels and infrastructure (and even hydrogen, if and when, available).

For more information see: http://quasiturbine.com/