The article describes Soviet converters, devices that can turn any hydrocarbon feedstock into high octane fuel. The author says a car can run on almost anything, from low octane gasoline and diesel to used oil and even moonshine. It also says such developments may still be useful today to cut fuel costs and move toward hydrogen energy.

In the years of the USSR, they did not know how to make gasoline in Russia. And they still do not know how. Soviet cars could run on what was produced at that time. Foreign cars cannot run on what is sold to us. But science was powerful under the Soviets, and they knew how to set tasks for it, right up to execution. There was not enough gasoline. The energy crisis in the USSR lasted for decades, and something had to be done.
Tanks before the war ran on gasoline. Army vehicles needed it too. Therefore, the task of adapting engines to dirty gasoline was relevant.
Now even diesel engines, which previously worked even on crude oil, have become finicky and require highly refined diesel fuel to operate.
It turns out you can drive cheaply, practically for free.
Soviet “Kulibins” invented special devices — converters. These devices turn a hydrocarbon mixture of any quality into a mixture of methane, hydrogen, and carbon monoxide. As a result of conversion, fuel with a high octane rating is produced. The mixture has a high heat of combustion, octane and cetane numbers, and produces clean exhaust when burned.
A converter is a device up to one meter long, and it can be installed in an existing car. The converter is connected to the exhaust pipe and the fuel tank.
In this process, the energy of the exhaust gases is also used.
What can such a car run on? Practically anything: diesel fuel, fuel oil, low-octane gasoline, diesel fuel, waste vegetable oil, moonshine. With a small modification, used oil can also be fed into the converter. In general, any liquid that is, in principle, combustible can be considered fuel.
We have enough oil spills. Used oil is available in any garage. And you can drive on that. You pull up to a spill, scoop up the sludge, and pour it into the tank. And you can stop worrying about gasoline prices.
Isn’t that a motorist’s dream?
Many automotive companies assume that in the future they will switch to hydrogen as the fuel of the 21st century. Hydrogen is dangerous to store and very expensive. But it can also be produced in a converter. And produce as much as needed, without buying or storing it. And such converters, for example for methanol, already exist and are used in fuel-cell laptops.
Converters are not only the past, but also a bright future.
So converters are making a comeback. And the beginning of hydrogen energy came from Soviet-era converters.