Method and apparatus for oxidizing a fuel in an internal combustion engine

In the method of substantially completely oxidizing a fuel in an internal combustion engine having a combustion chamber wherein a mixture of oxygen, air and engine exhaust gases are added to said fuel and individually controlled so that the nitrogen in the mixture does not exceed 70% by weight of the mixture, and said fuel and mixture are fed to and burned in said chamber during substantially all operation of said engine;

• the improvement which comprises providing a plurality of beds of a metallic oxide, supplying exhaust gases from said engine around one of said beds of metallic oxide to change the temperature of said metallic oxide to that at which the metallic oxide readily combines with oxygen to form a higher oxide, passing air through said heated bed of metallic oxide to form said higher oxide, stopping flow of said air through said bed when the higher oxide is formed, then supplying exhaust gases from said engine around said bed of metallic oxide to change the temperature of said metallic oxide to that at which the higher metallic oxide breaks down to the metallic oxide and releases oxygen, feeding the oxygen released by said last named reaction to form said mixture until the said bed is essentially returned to its original state while said one of said beds is feeding oxygen to form said mixture supplying exhaust gases from said engine around another of said beds of metallic oxide to change the temperature of said metallic oxide to that at which the metallic oxide readily combines with oxygen to form a higher oxide, passing air through said heated bed of metallic oxide to form said higher oxide, stopping flow of said air through said bed when the higher oxide is formed, then supplying exhaust gases from said engine around said bed of metallic oxide to change the temperature of said metallic oxide to that at which the higher metallic oxide breaks down to the metallic oxide and releases oxygen, feeding the oxygen released by said last named reaction to form said mixture until the said bed is essentially returned to its original state, and then repeating the above steps with at least one of said beds releasing oxygen while at least another of said beds is having its temperature changed to form the higher oxide.