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| 5/24 |
| 2006/2/27-3/1 [Transportation/Car, Transportation/Car/Hybrid] UID:42020 Activity:moderate |
2/27 Dutch (whoo hoo) design of bus is 50% more efficient and 90%
quieter than a conventional diesel bus, no fuel cell needed. -eric
http://tinyurl.com/jprn2
\_ Dutch were the first to start massive slave trade!!! Not
\- i think that is sort of an arbitrary call.
only that, they committed mass murder and other cruelties.
FUCK THEM! FUCK THEM ALL!!!
\_ What, in the 17th century? Don't complain when Muslims
bitch about the Crusades either then.
\_ I LOVE GOLD!!!
\_ New... in 2003.
\_ DOH! Didn't notice. Hmmm wonder what happened to it? ... Ah
http://www.etraction.com -- wow 14 MPG for a bus, vs 3.5 MPG for a
conventional US bus. Looks like the system increases the
price by about $25,000 per bus, maybe that is slowing adoption.
\_ Probably. From what I read, buses are a loss in many US
cities in terms of both dollars/rider AND gas/pollution per
rider mile. (Due to mostly empty buses). In places where
that's the case, a more expensive, more efficient bus
probably isn't much of a sale.
\_ Probably. From what I read, buses are a loss in many US cities
in terms of both dollars/rider AND gas/pollution per rider
mile. (Due to mostly empty buses). In places where that's the
case, a more expensive, more efficient bus probably isn't much
of a sale.
\_ At current prices you'd be saving more than 40 cents/mile, so
it wouldn't take very long to recoup a capital investment of
$25K for a bus that's operating full-time. Often there are
other costs of new technology (shorter life, higher repair
costs) as well, though, and that could be the case here.
\_ Well according to some of the information, some of the
costs would actually be lower, because there are fewer
moving parts (no transmission) and the diesel engine
is smaller and can always work at the optimum range.
However, the question mark is the battery pack. But it
appears that there are a lot of advances to be made in
battery pack design in the next 5-10 years.
\_ diesel @ $2.50/gallon
bus averages 15 miles/hour, 10 hours a day
= 150 miles/day
150 miles/day / (1 gallon / 3.5 miles) = 43 gallons/day
assume the bus runs 80% of the year (maintenance, etc)
= 292 days
43 gallons/day * 292 days = 12500 gallons * $2.50/gallon
= $30,000/year in fuel
[(3.5 MPG) / (14 MPG)] * $30,000 = $7500.
Savings of $22,500 / year
\_ Interesting. It's actually quite similar to the design of a diesel
locomotive, although it brings the extra complication of a battery. |
| 5/24 |
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| tinyurl.com/jprn2 -> www.radionetherlands.nl/features/science/031215wheel.html it all comes down to a smart combination of existing systems. This winter, in the city of Apeldoorn, a city bus will be used to prove that the claims about the new invention are true. E-traction, the company that developed the bus, boasts fuel savings of up to 60 per cent, with emissions down to only a fraction of the soot and carbon dioxide an ordinary bus would blow out of its tailpipe. In addition, the test bus requires no adaptation, its drivers need no extra training and there'll be no discomfort for passengers. It will simply run on diesel, just like all the other buses, and it should be just as reliable. the Apeldoorn bus hardly makes a sound, hence its nickname "the whisperer". In-wheel engine All this is made possible by an in-wheel' electric engine, in fact nothing more than a normal electric engine turned inside out. The outer wall of a traditional electric engine is a cylinder lined on the inside with copper wire. If electricity is fed into the copper wire, the current will circle the cylinder on the inside at high speed. Cylinder and wire together are called the stator' (because it doesn't move). To change the electricity running along the inner wall of the cylinder into movement, another part of the engine comes into play: the rotor'. This is in fact an axle, mounted in the centre of the cylinder, with permanent magnets attached to it. The electrical current in the stator pulls the rotor magnets along and the axle starts to turn. The fixed part of the engine - the stator - is now on the inside. The moving part of the engine - the rotor - is no longer an axle fitted with magnets but a ring running on the outside of the stator. If power is fed into the engine the magnets will - as before - follow the current, but now it's the ring on the outside, which will turn. Eureka And that's what makes the whisperer'revolutionary; By just putting a tire on it you can drive a bus, a car, anything with it. Since the wheel is in fact the engine, no axles or any other friction-producing and therefore energy-wasting mechanical parts are needed. if you want to go faster you just run more electricity through the engine. And it works really well while braking, when the in-wheel engine works as a generator, produces electricity to charge the batteries. The wheel without a tyre The whispering wheel with and without tyre The wheel with a tyre Pack of Batteries The power to drive the Apeldoorn bus is stored in a big battery pack that sits in a steel drawer under the bus. Changing the batteries every time they're drained would be impractical, as would be taking the bus out of service for recharging them for hours on end. Instead, a small diesel-powered generator built into what used to be the bus's engine bay continuously charges the whole battery pack. Since in-wheel engines are so highly efficient, the generator's diesel engine can be very small, about the size of the compact city car's engine. Because charging the batteries is all it needs to do, the tiny engine consumes very little fuel and can run continuously at a speed of 1700 revs per minute, the most efficient rev count. Clean and quiet Passengers will find it more important that the bus is quiet and clean. No more roaring buses pulling away from the station in a cloud of diesel fumes. When the whisperer pulls away (and whenever it drives for that matter), the power comes from the batteries, not the diesel engine which simply keeps on purring quietly. Furthermore, the constant rev count makes the catalyser much more effective, and the small size of the engine makes it possible to completely fill the rest of the engine bay with sound proofing. Being 90 percent quieter than other buses, the whisperer' really deserves its name. A bus using the new wheel Testing period In the coming six months the bus has to prove itself in everyday practice. Come summer, the city of Apeldoorn is set to decide whether to use whisperers on a larger scale in public transport. Dr Arjan Heinen, inventor of the whisperer and director of E-traction, radiates confidence: "This is a practical solution for present-day public transport. Every bus driver can get behind the wheel and do his job as before, only now it's quiet, clean and energy-efficient." The future of the in-wheel electric engine seems bright. At the recent Tokyo Motor Show, it was the engine of choice in many of the futuristic hydrogen-powered concept cars. |
| www.etraction.com Whisper(TM) has now been operated in simulated revenue service in and around Apeldoorn for more than six months. Measured over the total test distance covered by the end of 2005; average electric energy consumption for this almost 11 metric ton empty-weight bus can be summarized as following: 650 Wh, or 234 megajoules, per city kilometer, and 600 Wh, or 216 megajoules on the highway at a sustained speed of 85 km/h. |