Welcome to the world of product liability. Gosh, it was only a $6 part. My buddy just replaced a small part on his air duct unit in his car. Only cost him $800 in labor. It was a tiny piece of plastic that broke off.
It’s the heater and the heater only that presents a problem. They are a flaming PITA to check. I would rather pull a jug. They’re easier to get to.
I think we’re straying from the general track of the thread. If micro-turbines are used in buses then the engineering aspect of scavenging heat and cooling the engine has already been addressed.
At this point, it’s a function of making a working model that is cost effective in a car. It’s hard to get excited over yet another claim of improvement. It would be nice remove the space taken up by a hybrid engine and replace it with more batteries.
Yes, I recall the regenerator. That’s how the heat isn’t wasted, since it’s only a single shaft turbine the regenerator recovers uncomsumed energy from the exhaust of the single turbine. 500F sounds about right, and should be available rapidly. I’d still like to see proof of the fuel efficiency in modern turbines. I know Capstone has been making micro-turbines for a while now for electrical generation, but other attempts to make small turbines reach the fuel efficiency of piston engines in cars haven’t worked out. They were attempting to drive the wheels through a mechanical transmission requiring variable engine speed though, maybe driving a generator at an optimal speed would do the trick. I think someone made a prototype of a turbine hybrid in the 70’s, but I don’t recall too much, pretty big car, pretty big turbine, pretty big electric motor, that’s about it.
if it’s a hybrid then it will use the batteries first and then the turbine at a constant speed to recharge them. It would be neat if the regenerative braking energy was done mechanically through a torsion bar or other spring method so that it recovers all the energy. That’s been done before with a large flywheel on an experimental basis but I think that would take up a bunch of room and add weight which would be detrimental to fuel efficiencies.
Yeah, I see what he’s saying, I didn’t read it right the first time. Maybe a composite spring or torsion bar could do it without adding to much weight, but there has to be some kind of clutch mechanism there too. It would also presume the wheels are all connected through a common transmission. I think the next step in electric/hybrids will be individual motors for the wheels. Coreless motors are getting very light, and even if not built into the wheel, could be located close by to free interior space and reduce transmission losses. Electric braking also sounds generally more controllable without increasing complexity or cost greatly.
You must be from Cali.
New York state isn’t all farm acreage. All of Canada isn’t farm acreage. The 8 largest snow belt cities plus Canada totals nearly 90 million. That’s a pretty good chunk of the car buying market in North America.
Just for a little clarity. I don’t suggest the heater issue or fuel issue or anything else I brought up to be a show stopper. However I do think they are issues that have to be addressed and would cost development funds before something like this could be offered across all markets.
I am enthused that this configuration promotes an alternative drive train configuration to current hybrids that retain the inefficient mechanical drive train of their internal combustion engine.
If they’re smart they’ll tie the computer into the GPS so the turbine doesn’t run beyond the time needed to get to destination. So instead of trying to recharge it to 100% it would only charge it to remaining distance (there would have to be destination choices showing electric and no electric available).
