Transient Plasma Systems 1

Always makes you wonder about a supposed company that will not post their phone number?

I'm not sure what you're proposing to do with them, but they're a classic start-up and are thus high on promise and light on demonstrated performance. They are growing, but they're still running on start-up funding ($8.5 million from investors this year and a couple of million in government research grants). People who think plasma ignition will yield 20% efficiency gain in any old engine are misunderstanding what they're doing. What they're solving is the lean burn problem, and lean-burn is only one path to improved efficiency at low load in spark ignition engines. Low load operations are also being addressed using stochiometric mixtures by dynamically varying displacement (by modifying intake valve timing ala Atkinson and/or manipulating boost).

Looks like theres several avenues being explored in an attempt to improve on the ignition process.

Electronics Design article

Referenced paper on laser ignition

Good info there chez311.
There are several competing technologies around with the same goal - to reliably ignite very lean mixtures at multiple points, widely distributed through the combustion chamber. At the moment Mahle TJI has advanced the furthest but Laser and Plasma technologies have the potential to leapfrog TJI with significantly simpler mechanical hardware.

The numerous research papers on TJI (along with the quantum efficiency leap seen in Formula 1) indicate there is a lot of potential in this space. It is a pity the Piston ICE is nearing the end of the road - where might it be with TJI, compounding and electronic valve actuation?

je suis charlie

I don't share your pessimism about the reciprocating ICE. At least, not in the industrial space.

"Schiefgehen wird, was schiefgehen kann" - das Murphygesetz

It's going to be very interesting to see how Mahle packages the injector and spark plug into an affordable engine that isn't serviced after every use (see picture below taken from the article at The point of all these alternate ignition systems is to allow operation with a lean mixture which would, in turn, allow designers to eliminate throttling in gasoline spark ignition engines. This objective is similar to that of Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI) without the control headaches. Mazda's spark ignited HCCI (SkyActiv-X) seems much simpler than Mahle's jet ignition, though it does require charge stratification to work. The purest "spark" solution would be a laser with a prismatic aperture into the chamber allowing simultaneous ignition in multiple locations around its volume. The best solution overall, however, remains HCCI in my opinion.



I agree with Hemi that internal combustion engines are far from the end of the road because electrifying the entire US transportation fleet so far down the road. At present, we make 4.18 trillion kWh of electricity per year. 65% of the total, 2.7 trillion kWh, is from fossil fuels while only 17% is from renewables. Switching to electricity generated from fossil fuels accomplishes nothing. At the same time, we currently produce 4.3 trillion barrels, or 135 trillion gallons, per year of fossil fuels. Each gallon contains around 36.6 kWh of energy, so 135 trillion gallons contains about 5 quadrillion kWh. Internal combustion is about 40% efficient, so only about 2,000 trillion kWh is actually put to work. That's 478 times the amount of electrical power we currently generate from *all* sources and 2,810 times larger than our electric production from renewables. Going 100% electric is a huge challenge and is going to take a long time. Adding hybrid capability to a diesel using electronic valves and fueled with GTL (gas to liquid) fuel will result in an astonishing level of efficiency and cleanliness in the meantime.

Don't confuse electrification of the fleet with a fleet of electric vehicles. When car companies make these pledges that 100% of their new products will be electrified that covers everything from pure battery electric vehicles to mild hybrids with start stop systems and everything in between. BEV's & PHEV's combined are currently at about 2% of global sales. You can be sure that ICE will still be around for a couple more decades.

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Short range vision guys. The ICE is nearing the end of the road. In just 10 years, many jurisdictions in the EU will have 0% fossil-fuel new car sales. Most of the world will be at the same point within a few decades. The last new ICE cars sold will soldier on for another decade perhaps but by perhaps 2060, ICE powered cars will be enthusiast items - not mass transport.

je suis charlie

I'll be dead before 2060. Average age of the US fleet is about 12 years, no way you are going to get the last ICE powered cars off the road for at least 25 years after they are manufactured unless they are outlawed. Sure it's coming but it's a slow train.

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The Help for this program was created in Windows Help format, which depends on a feature that isn't included in this version of Windows.

I think we'll be surprised at how quickly people changeover to EV once the range is a little better and other improvements made. The average person doesn't care about the same things a car enthusiast does, if it gets them to work/around town that will suffice. Unless they're banned or the fuel runs out, there'll always be some ICEs on the road.

Let’s all check back in here in 2030 and see who was right!

The fuel ain't gonna run out naturally in this century. It might be legislated out or be replaced by something cheaper, eventually.

"Schiefgehen wird, was schiefgehen kann" - das Murphygesetz