http://www.technologyreview.com/Energy/18304/

idea in a nutshell is:
burn 98% gasoline in a
very high compression & turbocharged engine
via old fashioned multi-port injection,
but directly inject another 2% ethanol in the cylinder
at just the right time to prevent detonation

In several ways this MIT idea
is just a logical follow-on to the approach taken
by US EPA researchers who reported 5 years ago
on this spark plug converted VW TDI engine burning ethanol and methanol in a highly technical article full of
'geek speek'
but well worth reading 2-3 times to get the gest of most of it:

http://www.epa.gov/otaq/presentation...02-01-2743.pdf

Daniel Cohn, Leslie Bromberg and John Heywood at MIT have gone the way of the EPA idea, but made it 98% better (so to speak)
by realizing that only 2% injected ethanol is necessary.

I read a lot of engine technology articles
but this is the first one I have read in awhile
that could really give a 50% boost in horsepower
and a 25% boost in MPG.

Since the USA imports about 62% of it oil
(about 20% of that from Canada and another 17% from Mexico)
this type of engine tech could allow the USA to reduce consumption enough to import all its oil from its neighbors while not requiring unreasonable amounts of food to be turned into ethanol.