Nanotechnologies that are currently being developed which improve the
fuel and engine lubricant efficiency of conventional fossil‐fuel engines and turbines generally fall into one of four categories:

Fuel additives to catalyse improved fuel efficiency and reduce emissions in road transportation.
Tribological improvements to improve fuel efficiency within engines, usually relating to surface coatings or improvements in lubricating oil systems.
Nano structured ceramic coatings on components within gas turbines that allow increased temperatures, hence better fuel efficiencies.
Improved catalytic converters that improve air quality or minimise the use of platinum group metals in achieving equivalent air quality (i.e. largely a resource efficiency or pollution abatement justification rather than carbon saving).

Hence the range of a nano technologies within this area is diverse and the impact, time to market and probability of exploitation need to be considered separately for each type.

Benefits over current technology

Fuel additives: commercial systems for diesel fuel have been developed
based on cerium oxide powders. This latter system relies on delivering low parts per million (ppm) concentrations of the powder to the combustion chamber of diesel engines which catalyses a lower combustion temperature and cleaner burning. This has delivered 5‐10% reductions in fuel consumption. Associated with this have been similar reductions in exhaust pollution metrics, for example particulates. This is largely a ‘drop in’ replacement, although additive packages have had to be specifically developed to include the powders and there is the requirement to meter in the additive to the fuel (or indeed to an individual fuel tank), either at an oil company installation, a fuel distribution centre or a fleet operator’s premises, depending on the nature of the customer.

Tribological improvements: improved lubricant additives are usually based on oil soluble metal carbonate colloids, which meet the criteria of nanoparticles, although many traditional classes of colloid fall into this size category. These carbonates are added to neutralise the acids generated in combustion and thereby minimise corrosion and improve engine performance, including fuel economy and emissions. Without such colloids it is claimed by additive manufacturers that engine life would be significantly shortened. Development of the colloid nanotechnology within the industry is driven jointly by increasing restrictions on sulphur, metals and phosphorus in fuels (which puts consequent pressure on the lubricant formulation) and on the desire for improved fuel efficiency and emissions performance.

Nanoparticle additives have been shown to increase the fuel efficiency of diesel engines by approximately 5%. However this must be tempered by concerns about the health impact of free nano particles in diesel exhaust gases.

It is another nanotechnology application in automotive industry i.e. Nano metallic engine oil. It is fabricated by dispersion technology contains Cu-Fe nano powder, and acts as follows.

Self repair function which can recover damage of cylinder inner surface and form coating film of copper
Nano metallic particle can be served as a ball bearing to reduce the friction of moving parts. It significantly improves the engine efficiency.
Nano particles can be formed as a film to protect the leakage of fuel under combustion process to reduce fuel loss. It was proved it can be saved around 3.12% of fuel consumption.
Owing to complete combustion, it can also significantly improved the release of CO and NOx by 60~80% and 20~40% respectively.

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