Bosch Site Visit

After the site visit to CPFL, we had lunch and then went to Bosch, an international company that specializes in a wide variety of subjects, from antilock breaking systems, to security systems, to power tools. However, what we were most interested in was their flux fuel engines. I have a cousin who is a car fanatic who had previously talked at me about flux fuel engines: I had toned him out because he always talked incessantly about cars. I was pleasantly surprised and fascinated by the Bosch engine and facilities. We were first given a tour of the laboratory and were then given a talk on their company and the specifics of flex engines. They showed us a cold room, a heat room and a wind resistant room, which are three tests that they give to calibrate their engines so they can withstand a wide range of temperature and climate. Flux fuel engines are engines that can run on a mixture of mostly ethanol and gasoline to help burn the fuel because ethanol has a higher flash point. A higher ethanol percentage in the fuel mixture is preferable because it produces fewer greenhouse emissions and is cheaper to produce. However, there are certain drawbacks of ethanol to take into account. The fuel is less efficient than normal gasoline, which means less distance for same amount of fuel and consequently a more frequent need to fill up. Also, Brazil uses sugarcane for their ethanol while the US uses corn. The fuel production takes up fertile land that would otherwise be used for food production. Also, in the United States, the greenhouse gases emitted by producing the fuel outweigh those saved by ethanol. In Brazil, the greenhouse savings outweigh the emissions needed to produce the ethanol, which makes it a much more viable option environmentally. Eighty percent of all new cars in Brazil now come equipped with a fuel flux engine. In the United States, 2/3 of the drivers that have flux fuel engines don’t know that they have them. Had it not been for my cousin, I would not have known about them either. The technology has yet to be marketed in the US, even though it could save the individual on fuel economy. I believe the stark contrast is because ethanol is much more prevalent in Brazilian gas stations than in the US. Perhaps if ethanol were more prevalent, fuel flux engines would be a more marketable selling point when buying a new car.