Hybrid Power Trac

[ponytug]

I enjoyed reading the 6 cycle engine material, but as soon as I read that he hadn't dyno tested it, I lost all interest. If you aren't measuring a variable, you can't improve it. So, my takeaway is that he isn't serious about making a better engine, he's just having fun. (no harm in having fun. And you can make a good dyno for less than $100 for the size engine he has.)

There is a ton of material out there, like algae companies that haven't worked out the cost of the ponds and pumps, or the algae company that claimed that they would get twice as much energy out in biodiesel as fell in sunlight on the ponds, or solar companies that assume the equipment works for thirty years, but neglects to include normal degradation in the photovoltaics, or 10 year replacements of inverters, or assume that oil will be $175/bbl or electricity rates rise at 10%/yr, or a carbon tax will be implemented next year...
As Dr. Phil says, "Get real"...

That said there are lots of interesting technologies out there and some of them might even be successful. You wouldn't need to haul around that much water; the military already reclaims water from engines as route to quality water in the field. There was a guy thirty years ago that claimed to have a 'modern' steam engine, recycling the water, with fancy triangular pistons. It seems to have been lost without a trace; I often wonder what tripped it up.

All the best,

Peter

I think looking at those different technologies very interesting too. Most of the stuff you find on the interweb kinda funny.

But some, like say the six cycle engine, look interesting but you wonder about the water that will need to be hauled around. I guess they had to figure that out in the previous centuries with steam engines.

 

[SnowRidge]

The car of the future will be electric. It's only a matter of time. It may carry a small genset to recharge the batteries on the road, but it will be an electric car, nonetheless.

 

[BobRip]

The car of the future will be electric. It's only a matter of time. It may carry a small genset to recharge the batteries on the road, but it will be an electric car, nonetheless.

It just depends on good batteries. Long life and high energy density. This battery will solve many issues. Oh well, it's only been 150 years of development so maybe there is still room left for improvement.

 

[Marks481]

It just depends on good batteries.

Actually, I believe it will depend on good capacitors (make that "ultracapacitors").

The ability to instantly recharge and discharge without waste heat generation, lifetime counted in the millions of charge/discharge cycles instead of hundreds, essentially 100% of all stored energy can be easily discharged.

Right now it is just a materials science/engineering challenge.... the holy grail is a high voltage/high capacity device (right now, you get one of the other, but not both).

EESTOR in Texas claims to have got it, but won't tell anybody about it until they finish their production tooling, because they want to milk any future patents for as long as possible.

Of course, this may also be just another flash-in-pan startup story (although they are not publicly traded).

 

[BobRip]

Actually, I believe it will depend on good capacitors (make that "ultracapacitors").

The ability to instantly recharge and discharge without waste heat generation, lifetime counted in the millions of charge/discharge cycles instead of hundreds, essentially 100% of all stored energy can be easily discharged.

Right now it is just a materials science/engineering challenge.... the holy grail is a high voltage/high capacity device (right now, you get one of the other, but not both).

EESTOR in Texas claims to have got it, but won't tell anybody about it until they finish their production tooling, because they want to milk any future patents for as long as possible.

Of course, this may also be just another flash-in-pan startup story (although they are not publicly traded).

Super capacitors have great promise and I really hope it works out. The bain of most portable products over the past years was always the battery. I think now thought more resources will be put into batteries and super capacitors and maybe other storage devices. A wise man once said "We don't have a shortage of energy, just a lack of good storage." Robert Heinlein's Shipstone technology would really be great.

The best batteries have about 4% of the energy density of gasoline. Present day supercapacitors have much less than that (1/20 comes to mine, but I am not sure). This is a huge handicap. Let's hope EEstore is for real.
Oh, the GM Volt battery has about 1% of the energy density of gasoline. Actually I think the future of cars is to get the weight down. A 5000 lb truck carrying around a 200 lb man is very inefficient. To solve this would be a huge step forward.

 

[woodlandfarms]

An interesting read that is reasonably current

Checking the Facts In the EEStore Lockheed Agreement | New Energy and Fuel

 

[SnowRidge]

When they get the energy density up there, whether it is a capacitor or battery, there will be an interesting problem to solve. How do you prevent the instantaneous release of all that energy if an accident causes a dead short across the storage device?

A fully charged 150 megajoule battery or capacitor, which should give an electric car a driving range equivalent to a full 13 gallon tank in a gasoline powered economy car, contains energy equivalent to the explosive force of 72 lbs of TNT.

 

[MossRoad]

When they get the energy density up there, whether it is a capacitor or battery, there will be an interesting problem to solve. How do you prevent the instantaneous release of all that energy if an accident causes a dead short across the storage device?

A fully charged 150 megajoule battery or capacitor, which should give an electric car a driving range equivalent to a full 13 gallon tank in a gasoline powered economy car, contains energy equivalent to the explosive force of 72 lbs of TNT.

I read a story last year about a guy that drag races electric vehicles. Neat comments about a plasma cloud when there was trouble. There are a few stories out there about fire/rescue crews having to train for dealing with electric cars in wrecks, too.

Personally, I would like a plug-in car the could run 50 miles on battery for my daily commuting, with the capacity to go 300+ miles on gas for vacations, and have the room, size and performance of our Impala LS.... for under $20,000.00.

 

[woodlandfarms]

In los angeles you have a nearly impossible time finding junked electric cars. As you said, fire departments here in LA have to train on them for extraction purposes. Know where to cut and what to cut. So (at least last year) when one gets totalled out the city pounces on it.

 

[BobRip]

When they get the energy density up there, whether it is a capacitor or battery, there will be an interesting problem to solve. How do you prevent the instantaneous release of all that energy if an accident causes a dead short across the storage device?

A fully charged 150 megajoule battery or capacitor, which should give an electric car a driving range equivalent to a full 13 gallon tank in a gasoline powered economy car, contains energy equivalent to the explosive force of 72 lbs of TNT.

Another good point. With a battery both the fuel and the oxygen (so to speak) are stored in the same tank. At least with gasoline they keep the two separate. There are standard battery test that these must pass, but are they enough given how new this is. I noticed that the GM Volt has the battery very well physically protected.

So we don't build small cards because they are dangerous, but we will put a huge battery in a big car. There are always unintended consequences for anything you do. A small diesel car is looking better and better.