Some catalyst suppliers make claims of fuel savings as high as 20%. Is that possible?
The effect of the catalyst is to speed up the combustion process and burn the fuel more completely. Complex calculations on the mass balance of the combustion reaction indicates that no more that 10% of the fuel can be saved based on reduction of smoke, unburned hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide in the exhausts. With LED and gasoline fuels, this is in the range of 3 – 5%. An added effect can be seen by complete burning the fuel at the maximum angle of the crankshaft in the power cycle leading to more power from the same amount of fuel. This justifies the higher fuel savings observed. Higher savings up to 20% are not possible based on mass balance, physics, thermodynamics and reaction kinetics.
