Scientists at Liverpool University and engineers at Ford have developed a new ignition system that uses lasers instead of spark plugs:
Dr Tom Shenton, a reader in engineering at Liverpool University who is leading the project, said: “We are running engines everyday in our laboratory with this system now and our ultimate objective is have it inside cars driven by consumers.“Lasers can be focused and split into multiple beams to give multiple ignition points, which means it can give a far better chance of ignition.
“This can really improve the performance of the engine when it is cold, as this is the time when around 80 per cent of the exhaust emissions are produced and the engine is at is least efficient.“The laser also produces more stable combustion so you need to put less fuel into the cylinder.”
In current engines spark plugs are positioned at the top or bottom of a cylinder and they can often fail to ignite fuel effectively if the petrol is not in the right position in the cylinder.
In the new system the spark plug is replaced by a laser powered by the car battery which is sent along thin optical fibres into the engine’s cylinders where lenses focus the beam into an intense pinprick of light.
When fuel is injected into the engine, the laser is fired, producing enough heat to ignite the fuel and power the engine.
The researchers claim that the laser, which will need to fire more than 50 times per second to produce 3000 RPM, will require less power than traditional spark plugs.
Some of the laser can be reflected back from inside the cylinder to provide information for the car on the type of fuel being used and the level of ignition, allowing the car to adjust the quantities of air and fuel automatically to optimise the performance.
This raises the prospect of mixed fuel cars which can run on a number of different biofuels while ensuring they still run efficiently.