On 1/20/2020 11:17 AM, trader_4 wrote:
On Monday, January 20, 2020 at 10:58:10 AM UTC-5, Mike Duffy wrote:
On Mon, 20 Jan 2020 10:25:23 -0500, Ed Pawlowski wrote:

What exactly to you think a concentrator does? In concentrates oxygen
by eliminating nitrogen. So you are suggesting a concentrator feeds a
concentrator?

I'm not clear on your point. I suggest that the air intake for the engine
take in straight oxygen instead of air (21% oxygen). If you wanted, you
could also compress the oxygen with a supercharger. Is that what you are
getting at?

Supercharged or not, with 100% oxygen, for the same size of cylinder you
can inject 5 times the amount of fuel. That should give 5 times the
horsepower for the same engine weight.

Probably there will be other engineering considerations, like burning holes
through the pistons. But it seems an avenue worth exploring. I'm just
curious about why nobody has ever tried it.

Probably because there is no practical, cost effective way to produce
the required oxygen. What would the required flow rate have to be
compared to the flow rate from one of those portable O2 units?
IDK what you're gaining for common applications, eg powering cars.
You'd be getting a smaller engine size in return for space, cost and
power taken up by an O2 generator, another system. I guess one place
to start would be to see how much O2 one of those portables makes and
if you used it to just replace some of the air, how much more power you
could get from the same engine. If it's some reasonable amount, then
maybe it has merit.



I think you have to carry LOX and have limited range. Could make a hell
of a dragster though.