Big Benne wrote:[...] Classic engine:
C4H10 + 3 O2 -> C2H6 + 2 CO2 + 2 H2O
Partial combustion (there remains a C2H6, or more generally a hydrocarbon residue which gives this black or blue smoke) [...]
You seem to forget one thing is that even in a "basic" engine, the unburnt emission rate should be around 1%. Moreover, I am not sure that these unburnt substances (which we call HC in polluting emissions) are carbon chains shorter than at the origin ...
Big Benne wrote:[...] We therefore have more energy released (complete combustion), but also more CO2, for the same amount of fuel, and no black smoke.
So in my opinion the drop in consumption comes only from the fact that there is a complete combustion which allows to release the same energy (and the same quantity of CO2) with less fuel. But the problem is that for the same power released, you will produce as much CO2. [...]
Yes, we could consider that the production of CO2 is constant for a recovered power, but an engine does not have a constant specific consumption (that which allows to give the fuel consumption per unit of power produced and time).
So anyway, it is more interesting to have a complete combustion to better use the capacities of the engine, and to avoid emitting local pollutants.
Since there, we fall back into the problem of the relationship between pollutant
local (HC and CO, toxic at low doses) and polluting
overall (CO2 which is not dangerous in itself, but by the modifications it tends to induce at the level of the Earth ecosystem as a whole).
Big Benne wrote:[...] My remark was aimed at showing that one does not reduce the problem of the greenhouse effect if one applies the pantone on a non catalyzed engine. We can even say that in a sense it worsens it because it helps preserve oil reserves while emitting as much CO2.
It's a bit far-fetched!
Anything that can lead to better energy efficiency in the use of hydrocarbons as an energy source is good for our medium-term future!
Even if it must "
help preserve oil reserves ..."