EnerDel plans to sell affordable, lithium-ion battery in 2 years

Posted Sep 19th 2007 10:07AM by Lascelles Linton
EnerDel says they can make a lithium-ion battery for electric cars for just $1,500. That price for lithium-ion batteries is a lot lower than any price we have seen. Enerdel says it's hard to say right now how much they will cut prices but it should cost less or even half the price of traditional nickel-metal hydride batteries. The EnerDel battery chemistry is similar to Altair Nanotechnologies and has a lower operating temperature than A123 Systems.

Enerdel says you will start to see the batteries in cars by September 2009. USABC (United States Council for Automotive Research) in collaboration with the DOE awarded EnerDel $6.5 M contract to develop the battery for cars. Enerdel has already completed phase 1 of the 3-phase, 18-month program. Ulrik Grape, Chief Executive Officer of EnerDel says "we expect to deliver results that will meet and exceed the battery performance requirements of USABC and the DOE."

Are hydraulic hybrids more efficient than electric hybrids?

Posted Sep 9th 2007 8:05PM by Lascelles Linton
"This new powertrain is more efficient than electric hybrid powertrains being used in such cars as Toyota Prius and Ford Escape" says James O'Brien owner of Hybra-Drive Systems. What is Hybra-drive? It's a regenerative braking system that uses pressurized fluid to store the braking energy. "We are not aware of anything else like it" says O'Brien. The Hybra-drive website says it "improves fuel economy by upwards of 60% and reduces emissions by upwards of 90% while maintaining a platform that costs the same, weighs the same, and has the same cargo capacity."

Hybra-Drive Systems' first big contract is with the Army. Hybra-Drive systems is converting a Hummer to use the hydraulic hybrid system. "TACOM heard we were working on it and they called us," O'Brien told the Monroe News. "The military seems to see value in what we're doing. ... The Army's main goal is giving the soldiers the ability to get out of harm's way quickly." There is also interest in the company from all over the world, from Canada to Taiwan.

"This design has high potential" writes Dr. Ram Chandran, associate professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Kettering. He says this system is in fact more efficient than electric regenerative breaking. O'Brien says it has other advantages over batteries like the lack of toxins. The fluid used in the system is biodegradable and made from plants. O'Brien thinks you could see this commercialized, in more traditional vehicles, within three years.

še tu http://www.detnews.com/2005/autosinside ... 231001.htm in tu http://www.hybra-drive.com/Products.htm

Video: 130 MPG Ingo car gets local news coverage

Posted Jan 30th 2008 4:55PM by Lascelles Linton
Ingo Valentin was interviewed on local news station WISN recently about his 130 MPG Ingo Car. The car uses in-wheel motors that run on fluid pressurized from a small on-board gas motor. Ingo hopes the car will win the X-Prize so he will get the funding needed to get the car into production. The car has interesting features like regenerative breaking, but I am not too sure about the bumpers that store energy if there is an accident. The use of pressurized fluids seems to be an emerging and clean automotive technology (see links below) and may beat out electric and ethanol cars to take the X-Prize.

video tu http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzvHDZ39l5M

Valentin Technologies
From PESWiki

Valentin Technologies' "130 MPG Car" is a medium size 5-seat passenger car, driven by a Hydrostatic Powertrain. The free-piston internal combustion engine pumps hydraulic fluid into the accumulator that drives the wheelmotors in each wheel. The wheelmotors are reversed during braking and become pumps to recuperate the entire braking energy.

It is an official contender for the Automotive X-Prize (http://auto.xprize.org/). Furthermore, after inspecting the other contenders, Ingo Valentin believes that his design has the best chance of winning that competition.

"As mechanical engineer, I know that your engineering principles are sound and that the projected energy savings are realistic." -- Richard E. Kronauer, Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Harvard

SAE World Congress: UPS delivery truck with FEV hydraulic series hybrid drivetrain

Posted Apr 20th 2007 8:51AM by Sam Abuelsamid
At the SAE World Congress, FEV is displaying a number of vehicles that they have contributed to recently including a diesel powered version of the new Chrysler Sebring and the Lincoln MKR concept. Perhaps the most interesting vehicle is a large brown UPS delivery van. This is no ordinary UPS truck though. This one has a series hybrid drivetrain, but even that is different. Unlike the Chevy Volt or the Ford Airstream/HySeries Edge, this van has no batteries for energy storage or electric motors. Instead this one has a hydraulic hybrid system.

A conventional UPS van is powered by a diesel engine driving through a transmission and drive-shaft and rear axle. In the hydraulic hybrid version everything behind the engine is replaced. The diesel engine drives a hydraulic pump which draws fluid from a reservoir and pressurizes a high pressure accumulator. The accumulator acts as a power buffer, in a similar manner to a battery in an electric hybrid. The pressure from the accumulator is used to drive a hydraulic motor attached to the rear axle.

The hydraulic motor actually provides power to the rear axle to propel the vehicle. The fluid coming out the motor is fed back to the reservoir. Regenerative braking is achieved by having another hydraulic pump attached to the rear axle. When the driver lifts off the accelerator the rear axle drives the second pump which also pressurizes the accumulator. The resistance working back against the pump provides simulated engine braking. When the accumulator pressure is above a threshold the diesel engine can be shut off just as it would be with an electric hybrid.

The advantage a hydraulic hybrid system has over an battery electric system is the rate at which it can capture regenerative braking energy. Because a battery cannot absorb energy that quickly it can generally only capture about thirty percent of the energy from braking. A hydraulic system like this one can capture up to seventy percent of the braking energy. On the negative side, the hydraulic system has a limited energy capacity can only propel the vehicle short distances. The performance of the hydraulic hybrid system is actually more akin to a ultracapacitor, with the quick charge and discharge and limited capacity. Unlike the capacitors, the system is bulky and wouldn't be well suited to a smaller vehicle but is relatively simple and inexpensive for a system of it's size..

The system works very well on large 20,000 pound urban delivery trucks like this one. The continuous charging and discharging of the high pressure accumulator in this usage scenario takes maximum advantage of the system. FEV built two demonstration vehicles for UPS to test and they have been running since last fall. They have been testing several setups , including the engine running all the time, engine off when the vehicle is stopped and engine off when the vehicle is stopped or decelerating. Fuel consumption savings of 39-44 percent, 52-59 percent and 70-74 percent were found in the three scenarios. They also estimate a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of forty percent.

FEV estimates fuel savings of 1,000 gallons per year per vehicle and payback time for the hybrid system of only 2-3 years and $50,000 in lifetime savings per vehicle. FEV isn't a parts supplier, rather they are an engineering and design consultant. They do systems integration work and build prototypes for manufacturers. In this case FEV worked with UPS, EPA, Eaton, and International Truck to design and build these vehicles. Hopefully UPS and other delivery companies will take note of this and expand the use of such systems to all of their vehicles soon.

Fedex to develop and test hydraulic series hybrid delivery van

Posted Dec 10th 2007 10:29AM by Sam Abuelsamid
Fedex Ground is teaming up with hydraulic component manufacturer Parker Hannifin to develop and field test a hydraulic hybrid delivery van. The van will use a series hybrid layout similar to one developed by FEV that is being tested by UPS. The internal combustion engine will drive a hydraulic pump which will generate pressurized fluid to drive a hydraulic motor-pump. The second motor-pump will drive the rear axle. Under braking, the rear axle will drive the motor-pump to charge a high pressure hydraulic accumulator, capturing kinetic energy. During acceleration, the high pressure accumulator can provide driving force to the motor-pump to move the truck. The hydraulic hybrid setup has the advantage of being able to absorb energy more quickly than a battery, recapturing up to seventy percent of the kinetic energy compared to thirty percent for a typical battery. Unfortunately the capacity is limited. However it works well for this type of application that has a lot of stopping and starting and low speeds. The prototype is expected to be ready for testing by Fedex sometime in 2008.

[Source: Parker-Hannifin, via Green Car Congress]

Second, the cost: just 3,500 Euros which, considering that's the price of the "cheapest model" and conversion rates, somewhat in line with the cost reported by the Age: $8,000AU. Lastly, details: The BBC News also says the car will go 124 miles on a fill-up that will cost 1.5 Euros and will take just a few minutes. This is not a neighborhood electric vehicle because the car will have a top speed of 68 MPH.

Joie de vivre! je napisal/-a: Ni lepšega, kot vohati jutranji izpuh iz lepo servisiranega avta s frgazarjem in brez katalizatorja, to je lepše kot vohati lasten prdec.

Joie de vivre! je napisal/-a:Esem , tukajle pa si bolj osamljen kot ne
Ni lepšega, kot vohati jutranji izpuh iz lepo servisiranega avta s frgazarjem in brez katalizatorja, to je lepše kot vohati lasten prdec.

De_Tomaso je napisal/-a:3. Zalog še kmalu ne bo zmanjkalo, ampak se bo treba nafti prej odrečt zaradi segrevanja ozračja in posledic, ki jih le to prinaša. Orkani v Nemčiji, poplave povsod drugod in najvišje cene hrane ever pač deljao svoje. S tem, da nič kaj ne kaže, da bo letina 2008 kaj boljša kot sta bili 2006 in 2007, zaloge pšenice so pa tako najnižje po letu 1984.


4. Glede primerjave cen avtomobilov ne smemo pozabit, da bodo kmalu prišle obdavčitve glede na izpuh avtomobila, ki bodo predstavljale znaten strošek. Enako ne smemo pozabit na takse v mestih. Že danes stane v Londonu imeti avtomobil, ki sprosti nad 220g CO2 na km skoraj 13000€. In tako se že danes v Londonu bolj splača imeti najdražjega alternativca kot pa velikega bencinca ali dizla.


Glede samih alternativnih goriv pa mislim, da bodo na dolgi rok najbolj uspešne gorivne celice.

Da CO2 vpliva na segrevanje ozračja je bolj ali manj sedaj že jasno, drugače trdijo samo še nekateri posamezniki plačani s strani velikih naftnih korporacij.