I know and understand that there is little in the way of mechanical efficiency to be gained by advancing the technology on automotive ignition systems and that harnessing the lost energy that is blown away through exhaust is the answer.
Still, my curiocity is up and running about my Microwave/Laser/Fibre-Optics concept that may very well not be worth the paper it's printed on.
This is just discussion.
Actually... I do have a second "idea" that in conjunction with my first could possibly address the exhaust efficiency queston, but with that I go even farther out on the limb and come off as being even more "Off The Wall". So, at the risk of becoming the laughing stock of the Internet, here it goes. ( Oh... my god...!!! )
Consider... Ultrasonic Sound Gererators.
Oh yeah... that's the thing the doctors use to scope out pregnant women...! That thing can also blast a kidney stone into sand. I know, I have been there and done that.
Several years ago, some Japaneese inovators designed a ( get this... ) Washing Machine that doesn't use soap...! Read about that at:
http://www.designnews.com/article/CA200975.html . This device simply blows a charge of air up into a tank of water. The air charge is then imediately exposed to Ultrasound and that breaks the air down to it's finest degree of atomization... Molacules of H20 come bubbling up as FOAM...!!! and does what soap would do. The soap manufacturers in this country got nervous about that and lobbied against it in Washington because they couldn't buy the patent and shelve it.
Where's this going...???
S'pose... that same concept would work in the plenum space of an internal combustion engine after the fuel injectors and before the intake valve... Eh...???
If... ( and this is a big "if"... )
Ultrasound could break down a fuel charge to it's finest degree and that be fired by a hot laser... what would my hypothetical prototype engine do on the dyno... anybody...?
Take it easy on me, I am just as impacted by this fuel crisis as you are and I am reaching, that's all.