Nissan is planning to make the leap to electric vehicles in the coming years, but the Japanese automaker first plans to perfect the internal combustion engine. Nissan has announced a new fuel injection system for its small displacement engines, dubbed Dual Injector.
As the name implies, Nissan’s Dual Injector system uses two fuel injectors per cylinder, rather than the conventional one per cylinder. By doubling the amount of injectors per cylinder, Nissan says it has reduced the size of fuel droplets by 60 percent, “resulting in a smoother, more stable combustion.â€
Similar to direct injection technology, Dual Injector should net about a 4 percent boost in fuel economy. However, Dual Injector has some distinct advantages over direct injection, particularly in small displacement applications.
Direct injection is often difficult to equip on small displacement engines as it requires the addition of a high-pressure pump. That pump adds complexity and cost to the design of a small engine, which can make direct injection more trouble that it is worth. However, Dual Injector uses normal fuel pressures, requiring little in the way of modifications. Dual Injector’s simpler design can reduce costs by 60 percent when compared to most direct injection systems.
Since the Dual Injector system also burns cleaner than a conventional engine, saving can also be made on the exhaust side of the equation. The clean burning system requires about half the precious metals typically used in a catalytic converter, with savings up to 75 percent possible.
It remains unclear which global markets will first receive the green technology, but the first Dual Injector-equipped Nissan vehicles are slated to hit the road early next year.
