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The global community is increasingly becoming aware of the seriousness of the threat of global warming. In response to this, different industries are taking steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Another issue that the community faces is the fact that non-renewable sources of energy will some day run out. With regards to this issue, industries have looked for ways to reduce consumption of petroleum based fuels aside from developing substitutes for it.
In the auto industry, car manufacturers are already producing vehicles which run on alternative fuels. To complement that, a new technology in the coating process was developed and promises to allow vehicles to decrease fuel consumption thereby reducing emissions.
FriCSo Inc. announced recently that they have developed a “friction reduction nanolayer” coating for an engine’s mechanical parts. The said technology is called the SET or Surface Engineering Treatment. In a test performed by the Israel Institute of Technology, it was found out that the technology reduces the amount of fuel consumed by engines coated which has undergone the SET. Aside from fuel consumption reduction, the amount of emissions is also reduced with the help of this new technology.
The Surface Engineering Treatment essentially decreases the amount of friction between moving parts of the engine like the friction between the piston and the cylinder wall. FriCSo used a cutting edge polymer based machining process to reduce the amount of friction between moving parts of the engine. An organic, meaning it comes containing carbon, oil-retaining layer is coated over the parts’ surface.
Aside from reducing friction, the treatment also increases the hardness of the parts which makes them less susceptible to breakage or chipping and any other forms of damage.
The test which proved the fuel consumption reduction capability of the technology was performed on a 4-cylinder diesel engine. A test was conducted to determine the fuel consumption and emission of the engine if the parts are not treated with the technology. Then, after the moving parts of the engine undergone treatment, it was again subjected to the test.
By comparison, it was found out that the technology reduces fuel consumption by 0.4 to 4 percent. This depends on the operation condition, whether on low or high rpm. Particulate matter emission is reduced by as much as 46 percent when the moving parts of the engine were subjected to the treatment. Oil consumption was reduced by 48 percent which explains why the emission was cut down significantly. In a perfect combustion, the fuel alone is ignited producing clear emission, but in reality, engine oil sometimes finds their way to the combustion chamber where they are burned causing black soot emission.
The test shows overall that the SET improves the engine’s efficiency by approximately two percent. This technology can be used on common auto components like Volvo S80 parts. This will surely increase their fuel efficiency and this is definitely a good step forward in addressing the global warming issue.
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