When oil spiked in price and hovered around $150/barrel, gasoline crashed up through the $4/gallon level. This led to a flurry of activity seeking alternative automotive fuels. One approach was the use of an on board hydrogen generator system. A cottage industry arose, selling hydrogen generator kits complete with videos detailing how make a system ostensibly to allow a person to drive a car fueled by water. While some such systems did work, their eco-contribution was largely increased performance and mileage rather than replacement of gasoline. That result sufficed, however, to establish an industry making kits to create hydrogen, formally HHO, for cars and trucks.
However it soon became apparent that creating hydrogen was only part of the equation. To make the endeavor worth while, or even to work at all, the HHO has to be mixed with gasoline or diesel fuel in proper amounts. There are sensors in the exhaust system that measure oxygen content; if it too high, the computers controlling the fuel mixture increase the proportion of gasoline in the mix. Because HHO adds oxygen to the fuel mixture, there is more of it in the exhaust so the system adds more gasoline , thus defeating all efforts to save fuel.
This is where the efie comes in to play. It is hooked up to both the sensor and the vehicle’s computer. It essentially fools the car’s computer into not making an adjustment that sends more gas to the combustion chamber. This allows the HHO system to improve fuel efficiency. Because the HHO adds oxygen, there is a cleaner burn and less toxic emission. These initial steps, fostered by the classic home grown inventor, have matured to the extent that it seems to be feasible enough to be adapted into conventional automotive manufacture. While the cost of gasoline and diesel fuel has calmed down from the dizzying heights the sparked the idea, fuel is growing increasingly scarce and may well lead to the inclusion of an HHO generator and EFIE as a standard part of new vehicles.