Car tech device to reduce fuel costs

Cape Town – A new device to help save fuel costs will hit the commercial market before the end of the year, the developers have announced.

Hydroflex is in the final stages of commercially launching its hydrogen-based fuel efficiency system for petrol and diesel engines.

"We have a device that is cost effective and delivers value to the bottom line of the customer and at the same time reduces all seven types of pollution that normally come out of the back end of an exhaust pipe – we positively reduce all of them at different ratios,” chief technology officer and inventor Richard Connors said in a statement.

Conners has been working on the device for 10 years and relocated the company from San Diego in the US to Adelaide in Australia.

The device works by inserting an electrolyte into a 1.5l tank of water which Hydroflex claims works better than a standard catalytic converter.

Price

“So our hydrogen and oxygen is not a fuel, it is an accelerant that is consumed in the process and thereby because it moves the flame front faster it burns more of the fuel leading to more power and less pollution,” said Conners.

The company says that the system can be fitted to any vehicle and will result in fuel savings of between 10% and 15%. Users have to refill the water tank every 2 000km.

The first version of the technology is compatible with vehicles manufactured up to 2010.

“For version two we need to create an electronic handshake between our system and anything past 2010 - that should be ready within three months,” said Hydroflex chief operating officer Ron Basset.

“Version three in 18 to 24 months will fit in everyone’s car and we envisage that people will be able to buy it and get it installed for between $300 and $400 that’s our target,” he added.

The company is on a fund-raising drive of between A$500 000 and A$1m to accelerate commercialisation.

WATCH this online video on how the technology works:

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