Patent ID: 7597068

Claim:
A heat engine system comprising: a fuel reforming apparatus including: a first reservoir being adapted to store water; a second reservoir being adapted to store alcohol-containing fuel, the alcohol-containing fuel including alcohol mixed in a hydrocarbon based fuel that is not alcohol; a tank being coupled in fluid communication with the first and second reservoirs, the tank being adapted to: mix water received from the first reservoir with alcohol-containing fuel received from the second reservoir so as to form a first supply of a fluid mixture and a second supply of the hydrocarbon based fuel, the fluid mixture including water and alcohol; and separate the first supply of the fluid mixture from the second supply of the hydrocarbon based fuel; a reaction vessel being coupled in fluid communication with the first supply and being adapted to reform the fluid mixture received from the tank so as to form a reformed gas; an internal combustion engine being coupled to the fuel reforming apparatus, the internal combustion engine including: a combustion chamber; a first valve being adapted to provide to the combustion chamber the hydrocarbon based fuel supplied from the tank; and a second valve being adapted to provide to the combustion chamber the reformed gas supplied from the reaction vessel; and an accumulator being in fluid communication between the fuel reforming apparatus and the internal combustion engine, the accumulator being adapted to accumulate and pressurize the reformed gas from the reaction vessel, and the accumulator being adapted to provide the reformed gas to the second valve.