A New Lease On Internal Combustion

Somnus suggests we check out the latest issue of MIT’s Technology Review, where researchers describe how they can dramatically boost engine output and efficiency by preventing pre-ignition, or “knock.” How they do it: “Both turbocharging and direct injection are preexisting technologies, and neither looks particularly impressive… by combining them, and augmenting them with a novel way to use a small amount of ethanol, Cohn and his colleagues have created a design that they believe could triple the power of a test engine.”