AirFlow Truck Company StarShip Aero

[JRMichler]

That Nikola truck has got to be vaporware. A PT6 gas turbine is rated for 500 to 1000 hp depending on which version. It has specific fuel consumption of 0.67 lbs/hp/hr (Wikipedia). That's almost double the fuel consumption of a truck diesel engine.

What would be the cost and weight of a 320 KwH battery pack?

That size battery pack would allow running an engine at its best efficiency point until the pack was charged, then shut off and run off the battery. The losses from charging/discharging the battery would need to be less than the efficiency gain from running the engine at its BEP in order to show a net gain.

An interesting idea, but TANSTAAFL.

[BamZipPow]

Any bets that the air dam won't survive the road?

[Shepherd777]

Originally Posted by BamZipPow

Any bets that the air dam won't survive the road?

That's exactly what I was thinking. I give it about a 10 minute lifespan. Of course, that could be overly optimistic.

Ours will be dynamic, if I get it built in time.

[gafhj]

Originally Posted by JRMichler

That Nikola truck has got to be vaporware. A PT6 gas turbine is rated for 500 to 1000 hp depending on which version. It has specific fuel consumption of 0.67 lbs/hp/hr (Wikipedia). That's almost double the fuel consumption of a truck diesel engine.

What would be the cost and weight of a 320 KwH battery pack?

That size battery pack would allow running an engine at its best efficiency point until the pack was charged, then shut off and run off the battery. The losses from charging/discharging the battery would need to be less than the efficiency gain from running the engine at its BEP in order to show a net gain.

An interesting idea, but TANSTAAFL.

The nice thing about turbines is that almost all of the energy loss is exhaust heat. So while turbines are very inefficient by themselves, they are a great application for waste heat recovery systems. If you go far enough with that, they beat diesels, sometimes nicely. However, I'm yet to see a truck with a turbine more efficient than a diesel.
Serial hybrid has an efficiency drop of roughly 20% on a highway, when the energy path misses the battery. Going through the battery wastes another 10-20%.
Highway is where haul trucks spend most of their time and fuel, so this is the most relevant scenario.
Yes, this looks like a vaporware.

Oh, BTW, they tend to spec out turbine SFC with kerosene which has lower energy density than diesel.

[RustyLugNut]

. . . for a hybrid drive in the StarShip now or in the near future?

I posted in a parallel thread that, in agreement with JRMichler, this turbine powered Nikola truck cannot see a 1200 mile range with a 150 gallon fuel load and no plug in charging of the battery pack.

The StarShip could use a boosting electric drive to power up hills then return some of that energy back on the down hill leg.

Their website also tells of plans to have autonomous drive included allowing "robot trains" to be run by one driver. I'm not sure how the powers that be are going to see the hours of operation for the single human operator. Are the start laws going to allow autonomous drivers longer seat time since they aren't really "driving"?

[RustyLugNut]

. . . while reading their website.

They are stating they will provide free fuel for a million miles or some such and thus efficiency is not really an issue. Cost per mile is.

Free fuel is to be the caveat in this whole exercise.

[jcp123]

I see a problem doing drop and hooks with this, unless the entire fleet is comprised of these?

Still. Wind is annoying. A cd that low would be nice.

[Shepherd777]

Originally Posted by RustyLugNut

Are you able to disclose any of your plans for a hybrid drive in the StarShip now or in the near future?

The StarShip could use a boosting electric drive to power up hills then return some of that energy back on the down hill leg.

Our custom 2016 Strick 53' dry van will indeed have a hybrid drive unit installed on one of the axles. It will utilize a Remy 240 hp traction motor through a differential, powered by Li-Ion batteries. It will work exactly as you describe. It will give us a boost going up grades as most of the fuel in a big truck is used to overcome gravity. It will also regen going down the grades to recharge the batteries, of course. It uses predictive GPS and knows where the grades are before we start climbing them. We did not build the unit, but we are collaborating with a US based partner who builds them.

[jcp123]

The genius thing about regen downhill is that coming back down is the hazardous part of truck driving. Using regen as part of braking is a big win. As much as I can I glide to the downhills in my truck but I cringe a little bit every time I flip on the jake brake.

[Shepherd777]

Originally Posted by jcp123

The genius thing about regen downhill is that coming back down is the hazardous part of truck driving. Using regen as part of braking is a big win. As much as I can I glide to the downhills in my truck but I cringe a little bit every time I flip on the jake brake.

We have the wonderful Bendix air disc brakes on all 5 axles which provides much peace of mind, as you may imagine. But I hear you on the Jake Brake being dangerous in wet or snowy/icy conditions. So it will be great to have that trailer axle holding us back with much less chance of a jack-knife. We also have the new prototype 2017 Cummins ISX installed. The engine disengages from the drivetrain while descending a grade to save fuel. So instead of doing say 1800 rpm downhill while engaged, it will be doing 600 rpm and be disengaged, so it wont hold the truck back and squander that massive amount of kinetic energy. And they re-programmed the Jake to take advantage of that idle RPM while downhill.