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Surprising Science

New, Super Efficient Car Engine

Researchers at Michigan State University have built a gasoline engine that could greatly improve the efficiency of gas-electric hybrid automobiles, reducing emissions by 90 percent.
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Withing three years, a team of researchers at Michigan State University wants your car to be run by a new, amazingly innovative engine called the Wave Disk Generator. The prototype of the new engine requires no transmission, crankshaft, pistons, valves, fuel compression, cooling systems or fluids. It functions, conceptually, similar to an internal combustion engine: “The engine has a rotor that’s equipped with wave-like channels that trap and mix oxygen and fuel as the rotor spins. These central inlets are blocked off, building pressure within the chamber, causing a shock wave that ignites the compressed air and fuel to transmit energy.” It could also shave off 1,000 pounds from the weight of your car. 

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