Systems and methods for conditioning or vaporizing fuel in a reciprocating internal combustion engine
OwnerHitoshi Yoshimotoinventor
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Abstract
A system and method for conditioning and/or vaporizing fuel within an internal combustion engine in order to effectuate more complete combustion is provided. In one embodiment of the invention, the system comprises a combustion chamber; a fuel conditioning cavity defined by walls fluidly connected to the combustion chamber; a fuel injector system for ejecting a fuel spray through the fuel conditioning cavity; and an electromagnetic wave source electromagnetically configured for introducing electromagnetic waves into the fuel conditioning cavity and into the fuel spray to effectuate volumetric heating of a droplet of the fuel spray once ejected from the fuel injector.
Claims51
A reciprocating internal combustion engine for enhanced fuel efficiency, comprising:
- (a) a combustion chamber;
- (b) a fuel conditioning cavity defined by walls fluidly connected to the combustion chamber;
- (c) a fuel injector system for ejecting a fuel spray through the fuel conditioning cavity;
- and
- (d) an electromagnetic wave source configured for introducing infrared electromagnetic waves into the fuel conditioning cavity, and in the fuel spray to effectuate volumetric heating of droplets of the fuel spray ejected from the fuel injector.
A fuel conditioning system for delivering fuel to a chamber of a reciprocating internal combustion engine, comprising:
- (a) a fuel conditioning cavity defined by walls having a reflective inner surface,
- (b) an electromagnetic energy source operable within the fuel conditioning cavity and configured to emit and reflect infrared electromagnetic energy from the reflective inner surface;
- (c) an energy concentrating region disposed within the fuel conditioning cavity for receiving reflected electromagnetic energy as concentrated energy that is greater than in regions outside the energy concentrating region;
- and
- (d) a fuel injector having a dispensing end configured and oriented for dispensing a fuel spray with a trajectory through the energy concentrating region.
A fuel conditioning system for delivering fuel to a chamber of a reciprocating internal combustion engine, comprising:
- (a) a fuel conditioning cavity defined by walls;
- (b) a fuel injector for ejecting a fuel spray into the fuel conditioning cavity, said fuel spray having a trajectory;
- (c) an electromagnetic energy source configured for introducing infrared electromagnetic energy into the fuel conditioning cavity through the trajectory, said electromagnetic energy source being further configured to effectuate volumetric heating of fuel spray droplets ejected from the fuel injector;
- and
- (d) an energy concentrating region disposed within the fuel conditioning cavity, wherein the electromagnetic energy is received from the electromagnetic energy source, said energy concentrating region configured for receiving a greater energy concentration from the electromagnetic energy source than in regions outside the energy concentrating region.
A method for conditioning fuel for use in a reciprocating internal combustion engine, comprising:
- (a) injecting fuel into a fuel conditioning cavity defined by walls within a reciprocating internal combustion engine;
- and
- (b) emitting infrared electromagnetic waves into the fuel conditioning cavity and reflecting the electromagnetic waves from the cavity walls into the fuel spray to cause molecular vibrational resonant absorption with respect to the fuel spray.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.