Hurricane evacation and electric vehicles

[oil pan 4]

Originally Posted by cRiPpLe_rOoStEr

What features of a turbodiesel make you see it as some sort of analogue to the hybrid?

A Brayton thermodynamic cycle and a diesel thermodynamic cycle working together.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by oil pan 4

A Brayton thermodynamic cycle and a diesel thermodynamic cycle working together.

The same logic could also apply to gassers. So, are current Volvo hybrids more hybrid than naturally-aspirated Toyotas and Lexuses?

[oil pan 4]

Not really, gasoline engines require a richer fuel ratio and have a higher brake specific horsepower consumption.
When the gasoline engine is running under vacuum the turbo system is just dead weight.

[Isaac Zachary]

Originally Posted by oil pan 4

Not really, gasoline engines require a richer fuel ratio and have a higher brake specific horsepower consumption.
When the gasoline engine is running under vacuum the turbo system is just dead weight.

Of course a gasoline engine could be tuned and designed to be more diesel-like. It could be made to run much leaner, have direct injection, and if sized correctly could run most of the time at full throttle making the turbo useful. If ran lean enough the engine will actually run cooler.

But things get even better with gaseous fuels like propane, natural gas and hydrogen. These can run much leaner, (30:1 for propane IIRC and even leaner for hydrogen) and practically not even need a throttle valve. Just enrich the AFR for more power, like in a diesel.

[aerohead]

Originally Posted by Isaac Zachary

Just don't encourage all your friends and neibors to ditch ICEV's and go all electric.

As of now, have an ICEV as a second car if you insist on having an EV. Whether you have the EV or not, keep at least half a tank of fuel in the ICEV.

The future of EV's is still unkown. It's definitely good to think of these scenarios. But when and if the time comes that most or all people have an EV I'm sure there'll be a way to figure that one out.

One idea would be to have some sort of emergency air battery. Air batteries are usually not rechargeable. But they can hold a lot more energy than even a lithium ion battery. The air battery could be used in those emergency situations where you need to go for hundreds of miles without charging.

I'm not familiar with an 'air' battery. Could you expand on that one?

[Isaac Zachary]

Originally Posted by aerohead

I'm not familiar with an 'air' battery. Could you expand on that one?

A common air battery are the zinc air batteries used in hearing aids. There are other types, with aluminum air batteries being one of the best for energy power pound

All batteries need two electrodes made out of different materials so they can react chemically. If you remove one of the electrodes, namely the much heavier cathode, and replace it with air the battery can become much lighter.

This is basically how a hydrogen fuel cell works, only a fuel cell keeps supplying the anode chemical too.

The problem with air batteries is they're a single use battery. Once unsealed and exposed to air the anode begins to decay. So they might work for an emergency trip that requires a lot of electric energy in a small, lightweight package.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by Isaac Zachary

Of course a gasoline engine could be tuned and designed to be more diesel-like. It could be made to run much leaner, have direct injection, and if sized correctly could run most of the time at full throttle making the turbo useful. If ran lean enough the engine will actually run cooler.

The current generation of Volvo hybrid I was refering to are all fitted with direct injection, which for turbocharged gassers had been pointed out as the way to go in order to avoid the need for a richer AFR as a knock prevention measure. When it comes to full-throttle, some gassers now don't feature the throttle anymore, such as the 1.3L turbocharged GSE fitted to some Jeeps, yet it relies on variable intake valve timing for an effect analogue to throttling.

But things get even better with gaseous fuels like propane, natural gas and hydrogen. These can run much leaner, (30:1 for propane IIRC and even leaner for hydrogen) and practically not even need a throttle valve. Just enrich the AFR for more power, like in a diesel.

I don't remember how the mixer system featured to some gasser engines converted to dedicated-propane for use in forklifts operate, yet I'm familiar with some CNG conversions for road-legal vehicles. Folks here often get the AFR too lean believing it would increase the savings, as natural gas actually has a greater anti-knock resistence than ethanol.

[oil pan 4]

Originally Posted by Isaac Zachary

Of course a gasoline engine could be tuned and designed to be more diesel-like. It could be made to run much leaner, have direct injection, and if sized correctly could run most of the time at full throttle making the turbo useful. If ran lean enough the engine will actually run cooler.

But things get even better with gaseous fuels like propane, natural gas and hydrogen. These can run much leaner, (30:1 for propane IIRC and even leaner for hydrogen) and practically not even need a throttle valve. Just enrich the AFR for more power, like in a diesel.

Seems only common in theory, all but non existent in practice.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Even in my country, where new car buyers tended to be much more conservative, now I see lots of cars with downsized engines featuring both a turbocharger and direct injection, even when a larger naturally-aspirated engine with port injection is avaliable at a lower price. When downsizing started to become consolidated here, it was even often pointed out as an excuse to avoid lifting the ban on Diesel engines for cars and some light-duty utility vehicles.

[Isaac Zachary]

Originally Posted by oil pan 4

Seems only common in theory, all but non existent in practice.

In some special applications if might. But generally these kinds of things have been mostly abandoned for the spark ignited engine fire to it causing the same emissions problems found in diesel engines.