PTC Honeycomb Heater for Improved Fuel Vaporization

Early fuel evaporation systems which provide heat energy to the fuel-air mixture early in the cold start cycle are presently widely used to improve fuel vaporization. Most of these early fuel evaporation systems use engine heat to provide the required thermal input. A newly developed early fuel evaporation approach uses a polycrystalline ceramic heater which is electrically energized. This heater has the ability to automatically control its output power by continuously adjusting its internal crystal structure. This paper describes the construction and operation of this heater as it applies to fuel vaporization improvements in gasoline powered vehicles.