Invention improves fuel efficiency

Friday, January 26, 2001

In winter, only about 20% of the gasoline injected onto your car's intake valves vaporizes and powers the engine until the engine warms up. The other 80% forms a puddle in the intake manifold and evaporates, sending a blast of hydrocarbons to the atmosphere.

Dr. Ronald Matthews, a University of Texas professor of mechanical engineering, is developing an on-board distillation system that separates gasoline into two types of fuel, much like a refinery takes crude oil and splits it into gasoline, jet fuel, and diesel fuel.

"What we are doing is separating molecules of gasoline that are easy to evaporate from all others," explains Matthews. "Then, we store those highly volatile molecules separately and use them to start the car."

Matthews is working with Ford Motor Co. to develop the distillation system. For more information, call (512) 471-3151 or visit the University of Texas web site at www.utexas.edu.