Silverthorn Industries is a technology development company. Our overarching mission is to develop products and processes that significantly improve the conversion efficiency of the energy available in the fuels we all use on a daily basis. The net gain for the customer is lower costs. The net gain for the nation is reduced pollution and improved energy independence.
HCCI Diesel Fuel Modifier
- Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition Problem:
- OEMS recognize that fuel economy benefits between 10 to 20%, with up to a further 50% reduction in NOx emissions can be attained with HCCI.
- HCCI can not be controlled in diesel engines without significantly reducing compression ratio and thus eliminating all the advantages of HCCI.
- Silverthorn Solution:
Utilize our patent pending fuel additive formulation for use with ULSD to provide the early evaporation, mixing and ignition of the diesel fuel, approaching the efficiency of HCCI.
Gasoline Octane Elimination
- Gasoline Combustion Problems:
- Maximum possible S.I. engine fuel efficiency is 25% (WOT). Typical is 10-12%.
- 20% of the total combustion event time is spent burning the initial 2% of the fuel/air mixture.
- 95% of the octane contributing compounds are burned before they can contribute any knock suppression benefit.
- Cycle to cycle instability reduces the output efficiency of the engine by > 20%.
- High octane blending component (alkylate) incremental cost is 15%
- Silverthorn Solution:
Eliminate the octane requirement of the engine entirely by igniting the end gas before it can auto-ignite…essentially adding millions of spark plugs to the combustion chamber.
Octane from Oil
- High-Octane Expense Problem:
- High octane components are expensive.
- Over 95% of the high octane components are burned in the main combustion event, adding no value.
- Silverthorn Solution:
Deploy knock suppression chemistry from the cylinder wall oil film into the end gas.
Vapor Suppression
- “Light” High-Octane Evaporation Problem:
- Light fractions naturally evaporate as the fuel warms up.
- Ethanol aggravates the problem by driving off light and heavy hydrocarbons in the fuel, significantly increasing evaporative losses.
- Silverthorn Solution:
Silverthorn Industries’ self-assembling vapor barrier technology is being designed to reduce evaporative losses and could potentially allow refiners to blend in light high octane components which are currently restricted by summer volatility limits.
Oil Indicator Wipes
- Oil Changing Before Oil is End-of-Life Problem:
- Unnecessary oil changes are wasting money for consumers and creating millions of gallons of hazardous waste in the form of used oil.
- Many new cars are equipped with electronic end of oil life warnings but they are based on an algorithm, not real data from the oil.
- Silverthorn Solution:
Oil life indicator technology in the form of a non-woven wipe that can signal the depletion of reserve alkalinity of the oil Total Base Number (TBN). TBN is the critical parameter which neutralizes blow-by mineral and hydrocarbon acids from the combustion event.- The TBN of passenger car engine oil is approximately 8. Diesel engines with much longer drain intervals are usually formulated with a TBN of 13. It can be assumed that when the TBN has dropped to 3, oil change notification should be initiated so that oil oxidation mechanisms do not rapidly accelerate.
- A non-woven wipe is impregnated with a functionalized chromophore that will change color when contacted with a hydrocarbon with a TBN of 3 or less.