[V8] Diesels, Hydrogen, Hybrids, Continued! .....

[Scott Justusson]

 Ed,
Spoke with a couple of GM drivetrain engineers in my family about the 'future' as their corporate worlds see it.  GM is looking at electric hybrids as the 'future' along the lines of prius gas/electric.  Ultimately, it will be the Ford/GM philosophy that drives our future.  Right now, both are enjoying good sales, despite current gasoline prices, and future demand outlooks.  The biggest issues right now are price differential factors, not 'necessarily' any specific technology.  Again, without a clear energy policy coming from Washington, we are loping along with a lot of concept cars, but not practical production executions of them.  Most concerning with any/all the 'future' projects, as well as current offerings (ethanol), is the complete carbon footprint of any tech.

As far as I know, my contact at Ford Vehicle Engineering indicated that Hydrogen vehicle project are all but dead.  The infrastructure costs and other factors I noted in my earlier post, have put this on the way-back burner.  Realistically, it's not an efficient energy source to produce.  It takes a really high consumption of electricity (thinking the green wind generator theory), or a really high consumption of fossil fuels to produce.  That's without the infrastructure requirements that would be needed.  If it's not efficient, as long as there is a fossil fuel supply (at a lower cost), it's not a viable alternative.

Battery technology is the focus in many markets, and possibly holds the future if a major breakthrough hits.  The best part of this alternative, is the myriad of markets that benefit from the breakthroughs (beyond just transportation).  That said, I'm not sure we are that close to a production based transportation yet.  

To highly efficient gasoline combustion, I presume you to speak to Transonic Combustion technology.  It holds good promise IMO, but is still a ways from being a realistic alternative.  

What we really need is taking current tech and optimizing it.  A highly efficient turbo diesel regenerative hybrid with sophisticated drivetrain/driveline programming has the best chance of covering the full range of the transportation spectrum (Smart cars>Diesel 18 wheelers).  I don't envision a total electric transportation world even 15 years out, the best we can hope for is a hybrid electric system optimizing fossil fuel efficiency optimizing combustion efficiency and control system programming

More .02 on the topic

Scott J
92 V8 ABT Chipped





 


 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Etdmail at cs.com
To: v8 at audifans.com
Sent: Thu, Aug 11, 2011 8:58 pm
Subject: Re: [V8] Diesels, Hydrogen, Hybrids, Continued! .....




Hi All ..

There is some promising news on all alternative fuel fronts.

I had the occasion a few years ago, when the Director of Ford's 
Alternative Fuel, Power-train development came to some events 
I and some other colleagues, put on for a few years, at MIT and
some other venues, to drive two of their then Hydrogen powered
projects around.

One, a box-stock looking Fuel-Cell Focus and a converted direct 
Hydrogen-injected, Triton V-10 truck platform. The Focus was 
quite fast, near silent and clean, but still expensive!

The direct-injected trucks do require a quite large and heavy high
pressure tank, but are still enjoying sales success in urban fleets.

Some fuel-cell technologies are already showing higher rates of
efficiency, as compared to diesel, and are expected to improve.

Although, according to the Ford power-train director, there are 
some new technologies in the pipeline that will greatly improve 
gasoline powered engine efficiency and emissions, and will
have a good edge over diesel-engines, in most applications.

GM tested two fuel cell fleets, three years ago, in rural NY and
So Cal. And were very happy with the results. But the cost delta
and infrastructure, is not good enough at this point, to make it
anywhere near viable, in the market.

There are "reformation-stations" one can buy now, to hook-up
to the gas-lines in your home and convert the gas to Hydrogen
which would help in an urban cycle.

GM has been using a similar technology in its light-truck hybrids
to those used in the Allison's and it drives quite well, I think. IIRC
it is manufactured under a Mercedes license.

Here in the Boston area, many of the municipal fleets are running
on CNG, very successfully, due to some of the efforts of some in
our group, who are providing the infrastructures.

Honda also manufactures cars that run on CNG in some markets
And there are conversion kits available for Ford V8's an VW's etc.

Though in the end all the people involved in future power-train 
development, I have talked to, hold out the most hope for plug
in powered cars. There is some great new battery-tech being
developed at MIT and elsewhere, that hopefully be getting us 
all around, more greenly, a day soon.

But for now, yes, cow-piss does clean up diesel exhaust.
Cow-farts are a great source of methane to power generators.
Chicken-feathers, might be the next-best Hydrogen storage
medium. Chicken-crap, makes great fertilizer for tomatoes!

Busy boys!


Best,

~ Ed
(Cambridge)