This is related to diesels and gasoline engines and LPG – but is related to kerosene too- it’s a fuel thing. I invite comments, particularly if anybody has experimented along the lines I posit.
Nearby there’s a pretty lake where “gasoline engines” are prohibited. It’s too big to explore with muscle-power alone and surrounded by steep hills there’s no wind to sail, so nobody boats on it. Neat! I’ve got the pieces to put together a boat with a Wisconsin twin gasoline motor, about 18 horse-power, big old-fashion air-cooled, and HEAVY! It’s pretty low compression, a flathead. I think I can get it to start and run on “doctored” kero…if so then a nice little brass plate could be attached to the motor, saying something like “KEROSENE MOTOR”, (‘nuff for a snoopy cop to buzz off, the sign does say “gasoline”!)
So this part is mostly about kerosene… Butane and propane, the LPG that we buy, will dissolve in gasoline, try it, but don’t make any sparks, ok? Anyway, my chemistry tells me that LPG will dissolve in kerosene too, just inject the “gas”, as a liquid, into the bottom of a tank of cold kero. Measure the amount and keep it to a modest percentage, say 5%, and the increased vapor pressure ought to make vaporization in the gasoline carburetor similar to the vaporization characteristics of gasoline. If 5% isn’t enough, 10% ought to do it, just add enough to raise the vapor pressure so that it’s similar to gasoline and the motor will start – or so it seems to me. Knock quality might be pretty bad, but on a low compression motor, like a flathead, that ought not to be a problem.
In regard to doctoring fuel, what if LPG is dissolved in diesel engine fuel, either commercial petroleum, biodiesel, waste lube-oil, or vegetable oil, and used in a lister-type or other diesel? I am unsure about the solubility of LPG in vegetable oil or esterfied bio diesel, but think it will/might dissolve ok. Now, LPG is a greenhouse gas. In a diesel engine LP acts as an “accelerant”, and LP “fumigation” is an accepted tactic, the LP being added, metered, as a gas and absorbing the radiate heat of a fuel burn, the gas temperature goes HIGH and it burns too. There’s a significant efficiency increase because less heat is lost to the jacket, and more carbon gets burned from the main fuel, etc. But if LPG were dissolved in the fuel it would inject as a liquid dissolved in the primary fuel through the injector. Much simpler! Same result. There are pollution aspects here, and safety too, as diesel engine fuel is safe to transport and use, in part, because of its low vapor pressure. Still, if the doctored diesel was bunkered it’s be quite safe. To soften the blow to the pump/injector system adding a lube-oil like marvel mystery oil might be a good bet too, the LPG fraction having crappy lubricating qualities. I wonder, then, about the influence dissolved LPG would have on the carbon build-up rate in a lister type…huuummmmm…
Remarks?
Thanks, Phaedrus