Electric Assist Project: E-charger (2000 Subaru Outback)

[freebeard]

Do check out Edison Motors and their Series hybrid logging trucks etc.

I still have hope for Tilting Motor Works, and a human-electric hybrid. Yelp says they're still there: www.yelp.com/biz/tilting-motor-works-eugene but I tried their phone number in vain. The next time I'm over on the West Side, I'll swing by the location shown for their office. (the 360 phone area is Western Washington State).

With their front end and four motor/generators one could cobble together something like the Arcimoto MLM, a tilting, reverse tadpole Plugin/Human Electric Vehicle.

Which is sorta ontopic.

[ademonrower]

Thank you so much for your detailed reply! It's great to be connected with someone who sees the truth behind the facade, and is clearly one of the rare deep-thinking polymaths out there (Eccomodder seems to concentrate them :-) : combining biochemistry, advanced technology and politics... It took me 3 years to get my head around many of the things at this interface (writing time for book). Being a scientist, I unfortunately ended up writing a book for professionals. It set out as a "pop science" thing, but I was continually worried that I wouldn't satisfy the scientist readers with citations to primary literature and scientific detail... so... it became a kind of chimaera (textbook-popscience)... It's the kind of book to dip into now and then, but just reading the ToC tells the story, because I very carefully crafted the chapter titles and subheadings as meaningful phrases. The story of pure-hydrogen economies versus power-to-x economies based on hydrogen carriers is expanded massively on the website, resulting in something that really impressed me: the overall efficiency, factoring in energy and material losses, of the pure-hydrogen infrastructure is worse than that of the e-Fuel one. And, to boot, pure hydrogen requires an enormously expensive, energetically-taxing and short-lived infrastructure compared with e-Fuel. Professional politics combined with the "green lobby" is doing untold damage to quality thinking and, ultimately, hopes for real sustainability, I conclude. I'm flattered that you think the book/website deserve a thread here. Would that be OK in your opinion? I don't want to do blatant self-advertising.

[ademonrower]

https://www.researchgate.net/publica...extFileContent

[freebeard]

I vote for post away. Then I might find, from page 248, what the world's most economical car is. Audi A2?

The question becomes which subforum? EcoModding Central is more general but has three times the traffic of Fossil Fuel Free.

Logic can tell you about our 'green lobby'.

[Logic]

Originally Posted by freebeard

I still have hope for Tilting Motor Works, and a human-electric hybrid. Yelp says they're still there: www.yelp.com/biz/tilting-motor-works-eugene but I tried their phone number in vain. The next time I'm over on the West Side, I'll swing by the location shown for their office. (the 360 phone area is Western Washington State).

With their front end and four motor/generators one could cobble together something like the Arcimoto MLM, a tilting, reverse tadpole Plugin/Human Electric Vehicle.

Which is sorta ontopic.

Sorta on topic you say!

I have a lot to say on the on this, but again, not yet...


Leaving me with:

...I do want highway speeds and stability etc.

Is pedaling's worth it..?
I'm leaning toward a constant rpm series hybrid, using the 'fueling' methods discussed above. (also easy at constant rpm..!)
Constant rpm solves all sorts of complicated, expensive issues an ECU cant, like tuned carb, tuned lengths and Optimal cam.
Cheaply..!

IMHO pedaling should be seen more as a means of getting some exercise while you travel.
Then it's just a simple genset that helps charge the battery.

There's a black (carbon I think) tadpole e-trike Where you can pedal a generator if you like.
I don't recall the name and cant find it when I search that for pics..?
American DIY, now for sale? thing IIRC?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hfClQh3rxM&t=126s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQSKPGmy0v0

[freebeard]

In Arcimoto's implementation there is a dial between the pedals and wheels. So you can dial it down and do all the work, or dial it up and the pedals become the throttle. Saves parts.

[Logic]

Originally Posted by ademonrower

Thank you so much for your detailed reply! It's great to be connected with someone who sees the truth behind the facade, and is clearly one of the rare deep-thinking polymaths out there (Eccomodder seems to concentrate them :-) : combining biochemistry, advanced technology and politics... It took me 3 years to get my head around many of the things at this interface (writing time for book). Being a scientist, I unfortunately ended up writing a book for professionals. It set out as a "pop science" thing, but I was continually worried that I wouldn't satisfy the scientist readers with citations to primary literature and scientific detail... so... it became a kind of chimaera (textbook-popscience)... It's the kind of book to dip into now and then, but just reading the ToC tells the story, because I very carefully crafted the chapter titles and subheadings as meaningful phrases. The story of pure-hydrogen economies versus power-to-x economies based on hydrogen carriers is expanded massively on the website, resulting in something that really impressed me: the overall efficiency, factoring in energy and material losses, of the pure-hydrogen infrastructure is worse than that of the e-Fuel one. And, to boot, pure hydrogen requires an enormously expensive, energetically-taxing and short-lived infrastructure compared with e-Fuel. Professional politics combined with the "green lobby" is doing untold damage to quality thinking and, ultimately, hopes for real sustainability, I conclude. I'm flattered that you think the book/website deserve a thread here. Would that be OK in your opinion? I don't want to do blatant self-advertising.

Thank you very much ademonrower!
I... dont know what to say! Thx!
Not everyone agrees with you... and often; 'The silence is deafening' here too.
A feeling you are all too familiar with.


I need to fully read your interesting site, the links and research the subject more.
I knew batteries were not 'The Answer' Bunny Huggers like to believe, but was/am unaware of just how badly they do environmentally!
The current energy wastage is shocking!

My knowledge on the subject is more the opposite of E-fuels, with the onboard processing of liquid HC's back to H! (preferably using waste heat and for immediate use)

Elsewhere here there is talk of underground reserves of hydrogen I feel should be drilled for..?
As in; leave the hydrogen stored where it's been stored for eons and control demand with a freaking tap!

For stationary energy requirements my feeling is:
Turn the H into electricity on site and on demand. (with fuel cells..?)
One cant beat the existing electricity grid as a cheap, convenient means of instantly transporting energy..?

For transportation:
The waste heat (from fuel cells?) might be handy for the onsite production of synthetic liquid fuels..?
Or gas that doesn't escape through pipe walls and bugger them up in the process!
ie: Gas compatible with current infrastructure,
I'm guessing the consumers of the gas need to be closeby for this to feasible..?

A link to your site is just a link to a site, as happens all the time. Your book is linked from there.
So I would say go for it!

[Logic]

Originally Posted by freebeard

In Arcimoto's implementation there is a dial between the pedals and wheels. So you can dial it down and do all the work, or dial it up and the pedals become the throttle. Saves parts.

Yes; that's the std thing in E-bikes too, using cadence sensors or the more expensive torque sensors.

You do mean the Mean Lean Machine. Not the bigger 3 wheeler. (for others)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1FBqsYI8d4

Here's the 'pedal if you like' Raht Racer I couldn't find.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnNebVdiJoo

[freebeard]

You do mean the Mean Lean Machine. Not the bigger 3 wheeler. (for others)

Yes. I threw down $100 for an FUV but they never got anywhere near their suggested price ($11,900)'

So I reset my sights on the MLM. They proposed a retail price of $3000. Even that was not to be.

Raht Racer is interesting. The same serial hybrid arrangement, but it is one-wheel drive. Ingress/egress appears to be Okay at 2:30, but they edit around it at 0:10.

Human only uses two limbs, so there's some headroom there. The concave shell promotes hearing loss.

[Logic]

I post this as it pertains to onboard generation of methane like gas and hydrogen.
ie: Start of with a fuel with unbeatable energy density, then use (normally) waste heat (mostly) to turn it into a 'greener burning' gas mixture, that also improves fuel economy, on demand.

Mixtures of hydrogen and methane in the internal
combustion engine Synergies, potential and regulations

"...electric vehicle concepts with batteries...cannot compete with internal combustion engines...With respect to costs, service life and range...
...Mixtures of hydrogen and methane...or ...natural gas...offer advantages in terms of reduced emissions and improvements to the combustion process.
The wide ignition limits and high flame speed of hydrogen have as positive an impact on the combustion as does the higher energy density of natural gas on driving range...

Originally Posted by ademonrower

...

I don't believe producing Hydrogen and the infrastructure to use it as a fuel is a good idea.
The same goes for batteries as they take a lot of energy to produce and recycle, leaving toxic waste. (thx for verifying that)

But if it's already there and about as easy to attain as oil is, which is going to be drilled for anyway; it's a cleaner fuel to burn for on site, on demand electrical energy production than the coal, oil, gas currently being drilled for or mined.

Your research shows that using excess solar and wind energy to produce an energy dense liquid E-fuel hydrocarbon is the greenest way of storing energy. right?

Well with underground hydrogen, storage is solved at zero cost.
Varying energy demand is solved by a tap.

That leaves the on site production of an energy dense, liquid form of energy for transportation as the last challenge in this case.

I could go read up on how best to do so by combining H and possibly CO2, but you have already done all that!
Any ideas?