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The university where I did a post-bacc had a research project back in the late 1990s to build a TPV-powered hybrid electric car that used compressed natural gas

The university where I did a post-bacc had a research project back in the late 1990s to build a TPV-powered hybrid electric car that used compressed natural gas to heat an emitter surrounded by water-cooled PV cells. With the technology at the time they weren't able to get the efficiency to be competitive with an internal combustion engine, but something like this probably could've made it competitive. I'm not sure if there's any need for it with today's battery performance/price, but maybe as a range extender or something. https://vri.wwu.edu/viking-series-cars-history/ https://vri.wwu.edu/viking-series-cars-history/ (scroll down to Viking 29) https://www.sae.org/publications/technical-papers/content/972650/ https://www.sae.org/publications/technical-papers/content/97... (technical paper)

jacquesm 5y ago
Those are all amazing vehicles. I played a bit with water cooled solar cells, I found that the hard part wasn't the cooling but to be able to draw that much current from a single cell, the attachment points for the wiring typically really weren't up to the job and having multiple attachment points became a necessity. You also need a pretty beefy pump and radiator to get rid of the excess heat, though I guess in a vehicle you would use an active system with a fan. What I don't understand about the Viking 29 article is how an 8 KW generator is going to power a 75 KW motor, is there something I'm missing?
- opwieurposiu 5y ago
  There was a battery used for peak acceleration power. 8KW is enough to cruise at highway speeds if you have an aerodynamic enough body. More details: http://fennetic.net/pub/viking_29_thermophotovoltaic_electric_car.pdf http://fennetic.net/pub/viking_29_thermophotovoltaic_electri...
  - jacquesm 5y ago
    Thank you! Very interesting design this.
KennyBlanken 5y ago
Toyota has had a 41% efficient engine in production for five years. If it were set up as a range extender it would likely be even more efficient (fixed RPM range and load can be optimized for.) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Dynamic_Force_engine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Dynamic_Force_engine
- jamiek88 5y ago
  F1 cars are running over 50% efficient engines nowadays which is incredible.
  - KennyBlanken 5y ago
    Yep, it's amazing what you can do when you've got ten million dollars per motor to spend, run on an extremely tightly controlled / very high quality fuel, and need to only run for about 1500 miles. Sadly, F1 is just a money-pissing contest.
    - davedx 5y ago
      Much like space technology, a lot of tech that would never have been considered if there wasn't excess capital available eventually filtered down to "regular" applications. There are numerous examples of tech developed for F1 that ended up in road cars. https://www.carshop.co.uk/latest-news/formula-1-rule-changes-relevance-to-road-cars/ https://www.carshop.co.uk/latest-news/formula-1-rule-changes...

jacquesm 5y ago

Those are all amazing vehicles. I played a bit with water cooled solar cells, I found that the hard part wasn't the cooling but to be able to draw that much current from a single cell, the attachment points for the wiring typically really weren't up to the job and having multiple attachment points became a necessity. You also need a pretty beefy pump and radiator to get rid of the excess heat, though I guess in a vehicle you would use an active system with a fan. What I don't understand about the Viking 29 article is how an 8 KW generator is going to power a 75 KW motor, is there something I'm missing?

opwieurposiu 5y ago
There was a battery used for peak acceleration power. 8KW is enough to cruise at highway speeds if you have an aerodynamic enough body. More details: http://fennetic.net/pub/viking_29_thermophotovoltaic_electric_car.pdf http://fennetic.net/pub/viking_29_thermophotovoltaic_electri...
- jacquesm 5y ago
  Thank you! Very interesting design this.

KennyBlanken 5y ago

Toyota has had a 41% efficient engine in production for five years. If it were set up as a range extender it would likely be even more efficient (fixed RPM range and load can be optimized for.) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Dynamic_Force_engine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Dynamic_Force_engine

jamiek88 5y ago
F1 cars are running over 50% efficient engines nowadays which is incredible.
- KennyBlanken 5y ago
  Yep, it's amazing what you can do when you've got ten million dollars per motor to spend, run on an extremely tightly controlled / very high quality fuel, and need to only run for about 1500 miles. Sadly, F1 is just a money-pissing contest.
  - davedx 5y ago
    Much like space technology, a lot of tech that would never have been considered if there wasn't excess capital available eventually filtered down to "regular" applications. There are numerous examples of tech developed for F1 that ended up in road cars. https://www.carshop.co.uk/latest-news/formula-1-rule-changes-relevance-to-road-cars/ https://www.carshop.co.uk/latest-news/formula-1-rule-changes...