[ExI] Energy hints

[Dave Sill]

On Fri, Mar 5, 2010 at 9:35 AM, BillK <pharos at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> A conference put on by the new Advanced Research Projects Agency for
> Energy (ARPA-E) 01-03 March 2010 was packed with companies exhibiting
> intriguing approaches to clean energy.
>
> See:
> <http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-10463851-54.html>
> and
> <http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/energy/24883/>
>
> Some highlights:
> Transonic Combustion, based in Camarillo, CA, has developed a gasoline
> fuel injection system that can improve the efficiency of gasoline
> engines by 50 to 75 percent, beating the fuel economy of hybrid
> vehicles.

I had a 3-cylinder Geo Metro ten years ago that routinely got better
than 55 MPG, so beating the current hybrids doesn't impress me.
Looking at Transonics' web site, I can't see what they're doing that's
different than any of the current direct injection systems. I'm
skeptical that they'll be able to achieve the improvements they claim.

I didn't find any of the other possibilities to be very exciting, either.

-Dave