Carbon dioxide as an anti-knock agent
The Carbon Dioxide-use technology we disclose herein might, at first, seem like one of those old folk-art, hand-crafted "BS grinders" that, in years gone by, used to be somewhat amusing souvenirs commonly sold in southern state tourist gift shops, along the major north-south highways.
If you've seen and recall them, the wooden handles go around and around, but nothing much else happens.
In terms of the old General Motors invention we report in this dispatch, it might seem that way, in terms of it's use of Carbon Dioxide.
But, there is more to the story; as we attempt to explain, following excerpts from the link to:
"United States Patent 2,747,560 - Carbon Dioxide As An Anti-Knock Agent
Date: May, 1956
Inventor: Fred Rounds, et. al., Michigan
Assignee: General Motors Corporation, Detroit
Abstract: This invention relates to a method of reducing detonation or engine knocking. In particular, it relates to a method of reducing engine knocking by the addition of carbon dioxide to the fuel supply system.
Engine knocking has long been a problem in the field of spark ignition engines. This nearly instantaneous explosion of a mixture of fuel and air in an internal combustion engine with resulting high pressure fluctuations is associated with self-ignition of the compressed unburned fuel air charge in the cylinder ahead of the normal flame front.
A large portion of the energy liberated in this premature explosion is wasted.
The problem of engine knocking is a serious one not only because of the wasted power and damage to the engine, but also because it limits the permissible degree of compression in an engine.
Engine knocking increases with an increase in the compression pressures used.
(But, both) the maximum torque and the engine fuel economy also increase with an increased compression pressure.
Hence, if it is necessary to reduce engine compression in order to check detonation or knocking, it is all but impossible to improve the power output and the fuel economy of the engine.
In the past many attempts have been made to reduce engine knocking. The addition of tetraethyl lead to fuels to reduce knocking is well known.
(Note: The "tetraethyl lead" was banned as a gasoline additive due to concerns about toxicity. It was replaced by other chemicals which some claim are even worse.)
The principal object of this invention, therefore, is to provide an effective of reducing engine knocking ... by the introduction of controlled amounts of carbon dioxide into the fuel supply system.
We have discovered that carbon dioxide is a singularly effective anti-knock agent which, when introduced into the engine fuel supply system in controlled amounts, reduces engine knocking and leaves no corrosive deposits in the engine. In a practical application of this invention, the carbon dioxide, because it is completely miscible with the fuel-air mixture, may be injected at any point on the fuel supply system (or) carbon dioxide may also be added to the unvaporized fuel.
According to this invention, carbon dioxide may be introduced continuously into the fuel supply system if desired, since it does not harm the engine and is relatively inexpensive material.
(To say the least. Pending laws might force us to pay to try to bury CO2.)
As a source of carbon dioxide, a standard cylinder of compressed carbon dioxide may be used (which would provide) a very satisfactory and practical method of supplying carbon dioxide.
Claims: A method of reducing the speed of combustion reactions in a multi-cylinder internal combustion engine which comprises injecting substantially pure carbon dioxide into the intake manifold of said engine."
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First of all, the use of harmless Carbon Dioxide, in such an application, rather than "tetraethyl lead", which is now banned in the US, in any case, could have prevented a suspected multitude of various human ills and disorders; many of which, according to various reports, go undiagnosed or mis-diagnosed, especially as to their cause.
And, the much less-effective anti-knock agents, which have been formulated to take the place of lead, have an accusatory catalogue of suspected physiological dangers that go along with them.
And, though it's not obvious, the use of relatively harmless Carbon Dioxide in such an application - although the CO2 thus utilized wouldn't, itself, be chemically altered - would reduce the generation of more, new Carbon Dioxide, by making the combustion process more efficient, and the engine more economical.
Engine "knock", or "ping", without describing the mechanics of it, indicates that the engine is actually working against itself, and, thus, having to combust more fuel, and thereby generate more Carbon Dioxide, to achieve the same amount of useful work.
Using Carbon Dioxide, via the General Motors process herein, to prevent engine knock wouldn't reduce the total amount of Carbon Dioxide already in existence. It would, however, in making the engine more efficient, reduce the amount of new Carbon Dioxide generated, by increasing efficiency and thus reducing the amount of fuel utilized.
It would, to put it another way, increase fuel efficiency and mileage, without the use of toxic additives, by eliminating a situation where the engine needs to make more power to overcome some resistance caused by the power generation process itself.
And, it would do so without the, as current, introduction of known and suspected toxins, now contained in gasoline as anti-knock additives, into the environment.