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REFLECTIONS ON THE MASSEY-FERGUSON 95CV TRACTOR OPERATION

NUMBERED 22 ON QUANT’HOMME’S SITE


By Michel St-Georges

(Engineer, D. Sc. A.)

Created on 07/01/2002

 Following calculations entitled Calculs Sommaires sur la Consommation des Tracteurs Modifiésby Mr.Christophe Martzand published on the site Quant’homme, I would like to bring a modest contribution to the comprehension of the tractor engine operation. But before going into details of the Massey Ferguson 95 CV tractor engine equipped with a GEET fuel processor from Paul Pantone, here is first a reflection on engine operation and the GEET fuel processor operation.


1 -  Operation of an internal combustion engine – general considerations

Let’s first consider a general internal combustion engine, operating on gasoline or heavy oils (diesel):



Figure 1- General motor scheme

This scheme is certainly not exact for a diesel engine as the fuel inlet is directly in the combustion chamber, but the reflection remains valid. Considering a control volume around the motor, interfaces with the exterior are the following:

Air intake

Fuel intake

Exhaust gases

Mechanical power output

Warm water outlet produced by the heat losses through the combustion chamber walls to the water jacket

Cold water returning from the radiator

The overall engine efficiency of about 25% for a diesel cycle, and even lower for a gasoline engine, concerns the efficiency of the energy conversion from the air / fuel mixture chemical energy to useful mechanical energy. Lost energy, about 75% of the fuel energy, is lost as heat evacuated through the engine exhaust and the engine cooling system. The engine cooling system can be either through a water circuit or a pulsed air circuit.

2 - The GEET fuel processor from Paul Pantone

All the magic about Mr. Pantone’s invention is to recover energy lost through the exhaust (exhaust cold at fuel processor outlet) and to recover itinto a form that is directly convertible to mechanical energy by internal combustion engines.The GEET processor produces some sort of highly efficient fuel from various mixtures. In the tractor case, this is an air and water vapor mixture. The GEET processor seems to produce a gaseous fuel using the exhaust heat as energy source. This fact is demonstrated from the following:

The exhaust gases at the outlet of the GEET processor is largely colder that at the inlet

It can’t be a simple gas heating effect through the processor. In fact, heating the inlet gases before motor intake dilates these gases, thus reducing the amount of combustible mixture entering the cylinder as the engine always sucks in a constant gaseous volume. Heating the inlet gases thus reduces the motor power. In contradiction, the power or retrofitted engines is augmented for a reduced fuel consumption.

Mr. Martz’s calculations demonstrate that the water cracking into oxygen and hydrogen in the GEET processor does not produce enough energy to explain the fuel consumption reduction. It is possible that other gases present such as nitrogen are also modified in the GEET.

Note that there is no energy generation in the GEET fuel processor: there is only an efficient recovery of the energy normally lost in the exhaust. The recovered energy serves to modify the chemical composition of the gases inside the reactor.

Gases produced by the GEET fuel processor are stable, as the engine intake is somewhat far away – up to more than a meter from the processor outlet to the actual combustion in the engine. If they were unstable composites or molecules, they would decompose or recombine in the piping before reaching the engine. From this reflection, free atoms such as single atoms of hydrogen, oxygen or nitrogen (H, O and N) might not be considered. Or they could be precisely the answer: the GEET fuel processor would produce free atoms which recombination would liberate much more energy than the simple combustion of hydrogen molecules with two atoms (H2) with oxygen molecules also containing two atoms (O2). The heat of combustion used by Mr. Martz is the one of the usual hydrogen combustion reaction:

H2+ O2= 2 H2O

I have no background on free atoms stability; a specialist should be consulted.

Another important element is that the engine efficiency increase can’t be provoked by water vapor’s presence. As a matter of fact, water vapor present at the motor intake dilutes the combustible gases (fuel and oxygen), thus reducing temperatures and pressures in the cylinder and therefore the engine power and efficiency. Moreover, the water vapor presence increases the compression work; calculations of Mr. Martz indicate that the compression work is greater than the energy recovered by the expansion work (negative balance). An engine’s behavior is normally little affected by the air humidity: dry or humid air does not make much difference.

There is something else going on in the GEET fuel processor, something still to identify.

According to the various GEET installations reported, the fuel consumption reduction varies from no reduction at all to reducing by a factor 3 and even 5. It could come from a sensitivity of the GEET to the mixture proportions. An instrumented test bench would enable to control the operating parameters an maybe eliminate these scattered results.

3  - MF 95CV tractor engine equipped with a GEET fuel processor

The Massey-Ferguson 95CV tractor engine with a GEET fuel processor is schemed asfollows:



Figure 2- Tractor engine with GEET processor scheme

Compared to the motor without a GEET processor, the only supplementary interface is the water inlet. Note that the control volume is enlarged to enclose the GEET processor and the bubbler. Compared to the motor in figure 1, the exhaust temperature is highly reduced: this is where the extra mechanical energy produced comes from. It is truly an energy recovery in the exhaust plume. Gases produced by the GEET benefit from the increased efficiency of the engine combined to the GEET, as energy lost in heat while burning GEET’s gases is recovered in the exhaust and produces some more GEET’s gases.

The cooler the exhaust gases, the higher the energy recovery. For a well-sized GEET, the exhaust gases can even be colder than the ambient air. Energy recovery in the exhaust piping is then maximal. To increase further the efficiency, the energy lost through the water cooling system should also be recovered.

4  - Further developments with the GEET processor

I do not know the latest developments by Mr. Pantone ; it is well possible that many of the ideas given here have been already tested or exploited.

First thing would be to have a well-instrumented test bench enabling to measure the numerous GEET operation parameters. Some of these measures are recorded in Mr. Martz’s setup. I would really like to know the details…

The test bench should at least include the following measurement points:

At GEET processor inlet

Temperature, composition and flow of air

Temperature and flow of water to the bubbler

Temperature, composition and flow of exhaust gases

At GEET processor outlet

Temperature, composition and flow of produced gas

Temperature of exhaust gases

On the engine

Temperature and flow of fuel

Produced mechanical power – relatively easy with a generator

Temperature and flow of cooling water – inlet and outlet

And certainly some other ones…

These measurement would enable to quantify the efficiency and the quality of the combustion in the engine (pollution) for each tested configuration. The amount of energy recovered by the GEET processor could be compared to the internal energy of the produced gases (H2, O2, etc.). Energy balances on every component (processor, motor, bubbler, cooling circuit) could enable a better understanding of the processes.

Several development areas could be interesting:

Experiment with only air in the GEET processor. This experiment could demonstrate the alteration of the chemical composition through the processor.

Add an intercooler between the GEET outlet and the engine outlet to cool the gas and augment the mixture quantity sucked by the engine and thus augmenting its power. Eventually preheat the water inlet through this intercooler if temperatures are compatible. Or eventually have the GEET outlet gases piping travel across the bubbler to warm-up the water and cool down the gases.

On a water-cooled engine, heat the bubbler with the cooling water. The inconvenient is a slower warming-up (engine warm-up), but we benefit from a stabilized temperature heat source as noted by Mr. David. Moreover, the exhaust being more or loss cold after the GEET processor, there is little energy available. Another advantage is to recover part of the energy lost in the cooling system, thus a potential efficiency even greater.

5 - Conclusion

Energy losses in an internal combustion engine come form the incomplete conversion of combustion energy (chemical energy) to mechanical energy. These losses happen as heat losses evacuated through the exhaust and the cooling system (blown air or cooling water). The GEET fuel processor from Paul Pantone recovers these heat losses in a form that can be directly transformed into mechanical energy by this same engine. The maximum energy recovery will be obtained for cold exhaust gases and cooling system. The GEET processor recovers the lost heat to transform the air and water vapor incoming the engine into a combustible mixture.

To go further in the evaluation of the GEET processor behavior, it is necessary to perform controlled tests on a carefully instrumented test bench. This instrumentation would enable to compute energy balances on the various components: engine, GEET processor, exhaust, cooling system, etc. To characterize the gas transformation happening in the GEET trials with air only could be run. To increase the motor power, adding an intercooler between the GEET outlet and the engine could be useful. Finally, to maximize energy recovery by the GEET processor, heat lost in the cooling system should also be recovered.

Michel St-Georges

Engineer, D. Sc. A.

aimesg@hotmail.com

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