Technology is such an important wildcard in the social consciousness picture, whether we speak of the most innovative approaches to community development using WI-FI and FOSS in tandem [1] or we celebrate some of the latest advances in product development. While bumbling bureaucratic banter restricts radical progress at the nexus of environment and technology (current Ohio legislation insiduously inculcates clean coal and nuclear power measures as green and renewable technologies and considers a 35 MPG mandated standard by 2020 significant) some very innovative R&D experts have launched their media campaign to expedite progress by demonstrating how very close we are to a 100 MPG standard. I was heartened by a full page ad which recently manifested via a variety of media outlets - I happened to catch the one in this week's issue of US News and World Report.
I first noticed an illuminating and relevant Popular Mechanics article [2] over a year ago and its interesting theoretical and pragmatic suggestions for signifcantly higher-than-hybrid MPG results. A very interesting discussion by readers immediately follows this article. I knew it would be a short span of time before product innovators would call attention to a marketable solution.
Today I perused the full (page 35 of Jan 21 US News and World Report) vindication of my hunch. Called the Hydro-Assist Fuel Cell System, the R&D team claims lab test improvement from 39 MPG highway to 121 MPG highway. Their two part process uses the car's battery to electrolyze water, with the resulting gas (5x the potential energy of gasoline) displacing a significant amount of traditional fuel. The end result is a guaranteed improvement by a minimum of 50% using the kit.
HAFC Fuel Cell (source: www.PICCTV.com/us [3])
Another key step (following covalent bond-breakage and ionization of the car's fuel) is installation of a Pre-Ignition Catalytic Converter (PICC) that converts the car's fuel to plasma so it burns so clean pollution is nil!
Lab tests indicate that MPG numbers in excess of 100 MPG will be possible for SUV and Pickup class vehicles as well. More information on this intriguing and innovative development can be found here [3]. I'll reserve full judgement pending further research - yet upon first persusal this appears to be just the kind of breakthrough we need to trump legislative backtracking and token half-measures. Perhaps consumer demand will compel legislators to act more progressively. One Key will certainly be consumer adoption, and this will likely depend on factors like test validity, product reliability, durability, service accessibility, and total affordability.
The maximization of fuel utility here, if valid, is staggering. Couple that with next-generation innovation in biorecycling [4] (waste to fuel) and we'll have an impressive combination facilitating truly sustainable fuels and transport.