Environmentally friendly cars with laser ignitions and jet engines
In a few years, some Ford vehicles may no longer have spark plugs. Instead, they'll be started by laser ignition systems.
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The idea of a car being powered by a jet engine may bring to mind visions of powerfulness and speed, but not necessarily environmental friendliness plus low emissions and almost silent performance.
But that's exactly what , an Israeli company outside Tel Aviv, is currently testing in a car -- a shell of a Toyota Prius that's had its internal combustion engine replaced, :
Instead, an electric engine, containing a and a , powers from the rear as it drives almost silently around a test track.... a聽 micro-turbine engine [acts] as an on-board charger and a high-density battery...
Admittedly,聽 it currently delivers only 30 to 50 miles of driving per charge, but it's a promising concept.
Another intriguing project on the automotive front is research into replacing a car's spark plugs with . Ford Motor Co. and engineers at the University of Liverpool have received a grant to develop such a system, which could cut car exhaust emissions.
Here's how it would work, says :
Unlike the venerable sparkplug ignition system, which fires just one or at best two sparks right next to the combustion chamber roof, it is possible to 鈥榓im鈥� a laser ignition system to ignite the fuel anywhere in the combustion chamber, therefore focusing the beam where the fuel is most concentrated. By using ultra-fast computing to direct the laser, the engine can be run on a much more efficient or 鈥榣eaner鈥� fuel/air mixture, which would directly cut a car鈥檚 carbon emissions. This heightened control also helps overcome the poor cold-start performance of engines running high blends of biofuels.
This technology is expected to go mainstream within just a few years, .