Just saw this in today's Panama City, Fl. News Herald. It isn't on their public Web site yet, so I will cut and paste the article. These newspapers tend to charge you to read a story after a few days, so I will post the text here.
I love one of the last lines in the article; "A request for comment from the Association of International Automakers was declined."
http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Arch...&p_docnum=1Florida company working on gas-saving devices By Greg Martin Charlotte Sun
PORT CHARLOTTE
A local entrepreneur is about to begin marketing hydrogen-assisted fuel system kits manufacturers say could turn even gasguzzling American cars into vehicles that get as many as 70 miles per gallon.
It’s the fuel system the big oil companies don’t want the motoring public to know about, said Pascal Schreier, founder of EcoGaniCo, a Port Charlotte company that also markets small electric vehicles.
There’s only one problem: The technology works in theory, but making it work in ordinary cars has proven tricky, Schreier said. And he doesn’t want to start selling the kits until he can provide assurance they will perform as intended.
Now, Schreier thinks he has the solution. He’s teamed up with a hydro-fuel system technician, Stefan Reindl of California, to offer seminars here. The goal is to train mechanics from across the state on how to tune the modified fuel systems.
Schreier and Reindl held their first seminar June 27-29. Nine mechanics from as far away as North Carolina participated, Schreier said. They worked on tuning cars at Schreier’s garage.
Schreier plans to bring Reindl back each month to continue training programs.
To tune the vehicles, Reindl hooks up a laptop computer that reads various parameters of the engine’s performance. It measures the mixture of air and fuel and engine temperature.
Using a voltmeter, Reindl then installs resistors and other devices that alter the electronic signals from the vehicle’s computer. He keeps tinkering until the computer tells him the fuel mixture is optimum.
“Right now, there’s a big failure rate (with the hydro systems),” Schreier said. “But we’re right there, close to solving it.”
Schreier said he equipped his family’s Jeep Wrangler with one of the systems a few months ago. Its performance declined. He said the fuel economy dropped from 18 miles per gallon to only 12 mpg.
The system wasn’t delivering the appropriate mixture of air and gasoline to the engine, and the device’s draw on the electrical system, which amounts to about 15 amps, was dragging down the performance, he said.
That’s because in ordinary cars, the automakers have preprogrammed the vehicles’ computers to adjust the air/fuel ratio automatically so it amounts to about 14.7 parts air to 1 part gasoline, Reindl said.
The hydrogen fuel system enriches the fuel to the point a car engine will run on a mixture of more than 20 parts of air to 1 part gasoline, he said.
The trick is to modify the vehicles so their computers will let them run on the leaner mixture, Reindl said.
The system zaps water with electricity in a device similar to a battery to generate hydrogen and oxygen. The water must be replenished periodically.
The enriched fuel then is fed through another device that uses magnets to ionize the fuel molecules. That reduces their size by some 100 times, from 300 nanograms to 3 nanograms, Reindl said. And that makes the fuel more combustible, he said.
In theory, that reduces the amount of gasoline needed to run the car. It also reduces emissions to the point water is the primary emission, he said.
At least one other Port Charlotte mechanic who is not connected to Schreier or Reindl believes hydrogen-assist fuel systems offer the key alternative to exorbitant fuel costs and excessive emissions.
Gregg Marrapodi of Gregg’s Automotive Repair Center in Punta Gorda said he participated in EcoGaniCo’s seminar in late June in hopes of learning how to tune the kits.
“Well, they do work,” he said. “It’s just, each vehicle is different. It’s not as ‘plug and play’ as people want to believe.”
Marrapodi said he’s installed a kit in his 2007 Tundra pickup. The device boosted mileage from 16 mpg to 30 mpg, until the truck reached 55 mph, at which point the fuel efficiency dropped back down, he said.
“That wasn’t satisfactory,” he said. “I think we were having problems with some of the components that were delivered.”
Schreier said the public has shown keen interest in his company’s electric car products. But, the fuel system seems more marketable, he said.
“It seems hard to sell someone a $12,000 (electric) car when we have all these gaspowered cars that just need help,” he said.
Reindl said he has 25 years experience in automotive engineering. He is currently working to develop a computer that could be installed with the kits to automatically adjust the fuel system.
He said he's not worried that other companies will beat him to the breakthrough.
"The retrofit market is $169 billion," he said, referring to value of the units that could be placed in cars already on the roads. "So, why would I worry?"
A request for comment from the American Petroleum Institute was not answered Friday. A request for comment from the Association of International Automakers was declined.
For more information, call Schreier at 941-628-6000 or visit
www.EcoGaniCo.com.Copyright (c) 2008, Charlotte Sun
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