[عمر سليمان]

You can bet more consumers than ever will be tempted to buy one of those miracle fuel savers. The price of oil is peaking after a GFC-induced hiatus, and that means car owners around the world are seeing their hip pockets impacted harder every time they fill up.

These fuel savers promise up to 30 per cent fuel economy increases, as well as better performance, engine cleaning, a quicker burn and reduced emissions.

It sounds too good to be true – principally because it is. The crackpot claims made by the sellers of miracle fuel savers invariably fail to stack up. They fail basic engineering/scientific tests. Fuel saver devices are invariably a rip-off

They tend to fall into a few different categories.

Catalysts: these are employed in chemistry labs (and in your car’s catalytic converter) to kick-start reluctant chemical reactions. Your catalytic converter uses small amounts of very expensive metals like platinum, rhodium and palladium to break down undesirable exhaust byproducts.

Unfortunately, however, the combustion going on in your engine won’t benefit from a catalyst. Reason? Simple – combustion isn’t a hard-to-start reaction. In fact it’s too easy. Higher octane fuels are designed to be more reluctant to burn, not more eager. And to get the improved performance/economy possible from a high octane fuel, the engine must be optimized for it – with more compression, etc