Revisiting the concept of leaner fuel mixtures to run Internal
Combustion Engines is a favorite topic here. Latest news
released today has lasers as the solution to the problem of
igniting leaner ratios ex. gasoline to water. The claims are
that the new advance in laser technology enables smaller lasers
to fit inside the space that is normally reserved for spark
plugs. Whether they will be drop in replacements or not is yet
to be released. Without saying what the comparison is the
researchers discount plasma spark plugs saying the problem with
plasma (or as they refer to them – “high energy”) spark plugs is
wear on the tips due to the metal being worn away after a
relatively short period of usage. We have documented such issues
with plasma plugs built using conventional spark plugs tips but
the Firestorm plugs claim to have solved that issue by using a
non conventional metal for the tip. However the really
interesting aspect of using lasers for ignition (apart from the
obvious reference to Stanley Meyers Wate