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Has anything practical come of other recent "innovation stories"? I recall reading a few years ago about hydrogen injection from electrolyzed water -- supposed

Has anything practical come of other recent "innovation stories"? I recall reading a few years ago about hydrogen injection from electrolyzed water -- supposedly, it was already commercialized and being deployed -- including as a relatively inexpensive, after-market retrofit -- at least in limited measure. Also, a team at UW in Madison has been cranking out interesting engine design revisions, including IIRC one or more employing supplemental gasoline injection to improve burn efficiency (a small amount of gasoline, allowing a small tank's worth to last... several weeks, IIRC). These stories crop up, and then seemingly fade away. Are fleets actually seeing any of this, yet -- if you or your relative have any perspective on this? If not, sorry to trouble you -- hope you don't mind the question.

patrickgzill 16y ago
Not a problem. I have not heard of any of these technologies being used in the field. The only thing I have seen in diesel tech is a pressurized fuel system which is only an incremental improvement. Truckers are very conservative in their upgrades, remember that a truck has to haul up to 120,000 lbs (total weight), and has to last for anywhere between 500K and 1 million miles between significant rebuilds of any major piece such as transmission, engine, etc. On top of that, there is a patchwork of taxes, Federal regulations, etc. that change on a yearly basis. And trucking is very competitive and cut-throat, basically a low-margin business to be in. Low margins mean cost-cutting and no experimentation, so no one will test these new ideas unless they are paid to do so. (Each 18-wheeler used full time pays fuel and excise taxes of approximately $20K just for the fuel and taxes alone, not including the income taxes paid by the driver and the taxes on profits by the corporate owner; so there are lots of fixed costs to cover before anyone makes any money.)

patrickgzill 16y ago

Not a problem. I have not heard of any of these technologies being used in the field. The only thing I have seen in diesel tech is a pressurized fuel system which is only an incremental improvement. Truckers are very conservative in their upgrades, remember that a truck has to haul up to 120,000 lbs (total weight), and has to last for anywhere between 500K and 1 million miles between significant rebuilds of any major piece such as transmission, engine, etc. On top of that, there is a patchwork of taxes, Federal regulations, etc. that change on a yearly basis. And trucking is very competitive and cut-throat, basically a low-margin business to be in. Low margins mean cost-cutting and no experimentation, so no one will test these new ideas unless they are paid to do so. (Each 18-wheeler used full time pays fuel and excise taxes of approximately $20K just for the fuel and taxes alone, not including the income taxes paid by the driver and the taxes on profits by the corporate owner; so there are lots of fixed costs to cover before anyone makes any money.)