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Auto Fuel
Efficiency Explained My lofty Goals with this
project |
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My Pet Project: Hydrogen, Water, the Environment, and Energy Efficiency |
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A
Diesel/Electric Hybrid Motorhome (A big one.) On first glance, this may seem rather
impractical, but creating a high-mileage motorhome may be a very good
platform for this technology BECAUSE of it’s size. Borrowing from the current diesel
locomotive designs, I see no reason that a large motorhome could not benefit
greatly from electric motors. The idea would be to re-design a current
diesel-pusher motorhome to run at it’s optimal RPM for battery charging
and use large electric motors for propulsion, using re-generative braking.
(Imagine all the lost power stopping a 10 ton motorhome.) The
viability for this idea are as follows: ·
Current
locomotives get 900mpg/ton. Much of this is low rolling resistance, but it
also borrows from the efficiency of electric motors and steady RPM diesel
engines. ·
One of the
largest inefficiencies of any internal combustion engine is raising and
lowering RPM rates. By running at an optimal RPM, fuel efficiency can be
gained. ·
Motorhomes are
large. Although a battery bank for this would seem unwieldy, there should be
plenty of room and chassis capacity to do it. As battery technologies
improve, size and weight will reduce. Let’s do it NOW! Changing battery
bank design is easy compared to the rest of the project. ·
You could plug
them in at a campground as an added benefit. Use grid energy to move you down
the road. ·
~200 sq feet of
solar panels can also help with the charging duty. (I am aware that the
contribution is small as a total, but it DOES COUNT.) It all depends on
battery bank size. ·
Put that
braking power BACK IN THE BATTERY. The heavier the vehicle is, the more there
is to gain from regenerative braking. Forget Jake brakes…we’d
have the force of Faraday’s laws to slow down. How about THAT for going
DOWN a mountain pass? ·
As for going UP
a mountain pass, electric motors offer a nearly flat torque curve. LOTS of
available torque no matter what speed you are going! ·
If Tesla Motors
can store enough energy in a sports car to go 200+ miles, we should be able
to store a proportional amount for a motorhome. (Perhaps using the same
awesome lithium ion technology. Tesla Motors, are you listening?....) ·
Since
motorhomes are largely moving down the road at a steady speed, we can
somewhat compare them to a diesel locomotive. And hey…they are pretty
efficient. While this may be the most expensive
motorhome ever made, it would be a proof of concept. Costs naturally drop
after it is proven to work. And here are some other applications for
motorhome living: ·
Use
solar/electric grid to create pure Hydrogen (from your water tank) to replace
Propane. All current propane devices can use Hydrogen as a fuel (with very
minor mods,) so no new appliances are necessary and current designs can be
used. Not as much energy needs to be stored at a given time because it will
be created on an on-going basis. Enough fuel for a day or two of
furnace/cooking/fridge may suffice. (Negating the need for complex
mass-storage vessels for Hydrogen, which is typically much more difficult to
store.) ·
This same
Hydrogen can be used in the engine to increase the efficiency of combustion.
(It’s only a small amount.) Yeah, this project would take a small
fortune in research money. But I’d LOVE to make it happen. Imagine. A high mileage motorhome! |
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