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> If you want to see something I think the actual trucking industry is getting excited about, check out Edison motors. They're running a hybrid diesel/electric
by danans 3y ago
> If you want to see something I think the actual trucking industry is getting excited about, check out Edison motors. They're running a hybrid diesel/electric design that would work wonderfully for things like clean-air city driving
Serial hybrid seems like a great solution for trucking, since you don't need to oversize the engine in order to cover high torque needs (the electric motors would handle that), and during flat highway drives the generator could top off the battery using a narrower RPM range.
Long distance trucking is also a place where I think green hydrogen fed fuel cell trucks could work, since range would a non-issue, and also the hinterlands, which long distance trucks travel through, is where most of the renewables are.
If the renewables can be fed to an electrolyzer nearby, which supplies a hydrogen fueling station nearby, then you don't need to build much transmission/transportation to get the hydrogen to the trucks.
This requires electrolyzer cost to drop a lot (and FC Semis to be available), but all the technology components of the system exist in some form.
- thijson 3y agoIt's the model that trains have been using for a long time now.
- danans 3y agoAFAIK, diesel hybrid locomotives don't have traction batteries though. Many actually have big radiators to dissipate energy regenerated while going downhill by their electric traction motors. Hopefully, as batteries get less expensive this changes.
- rstuart4133 3y agoThere is always a counter example, and the counter example to trains not charging batteries is the infinity train: https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/energy/a39372219/self-charging-infinity-train/ https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/energy/a39372219/se...
- danans 3y agoThe article is paywalled and Googling infinity train gets me a cartoon show. Care to summarize?
- rstuart4133 3y agoPaywalled? Apologies. I wouldn't have posted it if it was paywalled for me. I'm not a subscriber. Here is one (I hope) that isn't paywalled: https://reneweconomy.com.au/fortescue-starts-work-on-world-first-infinity-train-a-regenerating-battery-on-rails/ https://reneweconomy.com.au/fortescue-starts-work-on-world-f... Failing that try googling "infinity train battery". It was a popular story at the time. As the story says, at least two companies are doing it in Australia. The amount of destruction these things can cause when they lose control of all that energy is impressive: https://www.atsb.gov.au/publications/investigation_reports/2020/rair/ro-2020-022 https://www.atsb.gov.au/publications/investigation_reports/2... and https://www.atsb.gov.au/publications/investigation_reports/2018/rair/ro-2018-018 https://www.atsb.gov.au/publications/investigation_reports/2... They can not be stopped in a controlled fashion once they get going. The latter one cost BHP $800M from memory.
- danans 3y agoSome 3rd electric rail based transit systems have regenerative braking that feeds power back into the electric rail [1], which is used by other trains that are drawing power at that moment. I don't know if they use batteries to store excess, however. 1. https://www.bart.gov/news/articles/2016/news20160826 https://www.bart.gov/news/articles/2016/news20160826