The future of Diesel powered vehicles, neat stuff

[Greg]

Not sure how I came across this guy, but he has some ideas that are pretty far outside the box. His name is Johnathan Goodwin & he has a alternative fuels business based out of Kansas. One of his well-known projects was a electric powered Hummer with a turbine engine that spins a generator. He claims 60 MPG, 2000 ft/lbs and the turbine runs on bio-diesel. Here's an article on the Hummer & some of his other projects/ideas-

http://www.autobloggreen.com/2007/10/20/biodiesel-turbine-super-capacitor-series-hybrid-hummer-60/


There's another article on him written by FastCompany.com called Motorhead Messiah, it's much longer & he talks in detail about how the US can make a move away from our reliance on foreign oil. I think it's one of the most possible plans that I have seen and he breaks it down very simply. Here's a couple paragraphs from the Motorhead Messiah article-

Detroit still seems to be all but paralyzed by the challenges of fuel economy, emissions, and alternative fuels. And it's not just about greed or laziness: Talk to car-industry experts, and they'll point out a number of serious barriers to introducing radically new alternative-fuel vehicles on a scale that will make a difference. One of the highest is that low-emission fuels--biodiesel, ethanol, electricity, hydrogen, all of which account for less than 3% of the nation's fuel supply--just aren't widely available on American highways. This creates a chicken-and-egg problem. People won't buy alternative-fuel cars until it's easy to fill them up, but alternative fuel makers won't ramp up production until there's a viable market.

Goodwin admits all these things are true but believes the country could be weaned off gasoline in a three-step process. The first would be for Detroit to aggressively roll out diesel engines, much as Europe has already begun to do (some 50% of all European cars run diesel). In a single stroke, that would improve the nation's mileage by as much as 40%, and, because diesel fuel is already widely available, drivers could take that step with a minimum of disruption. What's more, given that many diesel engines can also run homegrown biodiesel, a mass conversion to diesel would help kick-start that market. (This could have geopolitical implications as well as environmental and economic ones: The Department of Transportation estimated in 2004 that if we converted merely one-third of America's passenger cars and light trucks to diesel, we'd reduce our oil consumption by up to 1.4 million barrels of oil per day--precisely the amount we import from Saudi Arabia.)

The second step in Goodwin's scheme would be to produce diesel-electric hybrid cars. This would double the mileage on even the biggest diesel vehicles. The third phase would be to produce electric hybrids that run in "dual fuel" mode, burning biodiesel along with hydrogen, ethanol, natural gas, or propane. This is the concept Goodwin is proving out in his turbine-enhanced H3 Hummer and in Neil Young's Lincoln: "At that point, your mileage just goes really, really high, and your emissions are incredibly low," he says. Since those vehicles can run on regular diesel or biodiesel--and without any alternative fuel at all, if need be--drivers wouldn't have to worry about getting stranded on the interstate. At the same time, as more and more dual-fuel cars hit the road, they would goose demand for genuinely national ethanol, hydrogen, and biodiesel grids.

Another place I've been keeping an eye on is the DieselForecast.com web site. All kinds of cool news about diesel progression & possible diesel vehicle additions in the US. Enjoy!

 

[Greg]

I've long thought about a diesel-electric hybrid, my TDI Jetta already gets 48-50 MPG... add an electric motor & it makes me wonder what kind of mileage would be possible. If the manufacturers can build a gas-electric hybrid, why not a diesel-elec? Can you imagine how good that manufacturer would look of they made a car that got 75-80 MPG? And how popular that car would be, with oil pushing $100 a barrel?

 

[spencurai]

We are pinned down with a boot on the back of our necks getting robbed by the big oil industry. We should have all this stuff already but as long as oil is 100$ the oil and gas industry WILL NOT HELP US!

There is a problem of group think in the US...for some reason we Americans think that gas will eventually go back to where it was a few years ago...when in reality it will never go back down!

Everyone is getting rich because we just keep consuming and consuming...we have no alternative and they are going to try and keep it that way! I am beginning to believe more and more that there is a giant conspiracy against the working middle class!! We are getting jacked when technology like this exists and should have been implemented years ago!!

Bring on the diesel!!

 

[Greg]

We are pinned down with a boot on the back of our necks getting robbed by the big oil industry. We should have all this stuff already but as long as oil is 100$ the oil and gas industry WILL NOT HELP US!

There is a problem of group think in the US...for some reason we Americans think that gas will eventually go back to where it was a few years ago...when in reality it will never go back down!

Everyone is getting rich because we just keep consuming and consuming...we have no alternative and they are going to try and keep it that way! I am beginning to believe more and more that there is a giant conspiracy against the working middle class!! We are getting jacked when technology like this exists and should have been implemented years ago!!

Bring on the diesel!!

Fully agree with you Spence, the oil company's jack up the price enough to where the public complains, then they drop the price 5 cents a gallon to make everyone feel better about it. We keep playing this game & it's getting more & more frequent. I'd love to get away from relying on the big oil companys for fuel. Both of our daily-drivers are diesels, I'd love to build some kind of SUV with a Cummins 4BT that will run on biodiesel & get 25+ MPG. I wish I had more garage space so I could brew my own bio.


In other related diesel news, Mercedes-Benz has developed an experimental engine that combines the character of a diesel with the emissions & fuel availability of a gas motor. It's called the DiesOtto. They're claiming some pretty huge power numbers, 160 ft-lbs of torque per liter!

 

[Greg]

Found some more cool diesel news... I've heard about researchers using Algae to produce biodiesel, matter of fact here's a video on the subject.

[YOUTUBE]vxNeBQCRv1c[/YOUTUBE]


Sounds pretty good, but there's much more... a company called Solazyme has figured out how to take the sunlight out of the equation, getting light to a large-scale algae bio production a difficult proposition. Rather than rely on photosynthesis, they're using sugar to grow algae in the dark.

http://gas2.org/2008/01/21/breaking...e-biodiesel-breakthrough-production-possible/

http://gas2.org/2008/01/25/cellulosic-ethanol-sugar-diverted-to-algae-biodiesel-production/


And this is quite interesting... http://www.solazyme.com/news080415.shtml

First Heavy-Duty Vehicle Powered by 100% Algal Derived Biofuel Soladiesel TM Demonstrated at the 2008 DESC Worldwide Energy Conference.

A recent test of Solazyme biodiesel, Soladiesel, through the Southwest Research Institute (SWRI), by request of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), demonstrated that Soladiesel has superior cold weather properties to any commercially available biodiesel. This makes it more suitable for cold weather climates where military bases have been previously unable to use biodiesel.

Makes me want to buy some acreage and start an algae farm!


And for some interesting news, looks like Subaru is going to build a turbo-diesel STI with a WRX model available! - http://gas2.org/2008/03/05/subaru-sti-is-diesel-the-intersection-of-power-and-fuel-economy/#more-203

 

[Greg]

I've long thought about a diesel-electric hybrid, my TDI Jetta already gets 48-50 MPG... add an electric motor & it makes me wonder what kind of mileage would be possible. If the manufacturers can build a gas-electric hybrid, why not a diesel-elec? Can you imagine how good that manufacturer would look of they made a car that got 75-80 MPG? And how popular that car would be, with oil pushing $100 a barrel?

Looks like the idea had already been in the works by VW, sadly the project has been killed due to the high expense. :-\ - http://gas2.org/2008/03/03/a-biodiesel-prius-vw-to-release-699-mpg-diesel-hybrid/

 

[Tacoma]

I'm a bit disappointed that ANY new vehicle is coming out with less than 25-30mpg out of the box. If the Corvette can do 25mpg w/8 gazillion HP, there's no reason small efficient vehicles shouldn't do a lot better.

Ford's new Flex POS gets awful mileage, surprising for the hype/ads/image.

 

[StrobeNGH]

I don't think it's a conspiracy by the oil companies, but I do think they had an unfortunate realization this past decade that will lead to one:

Oil industry analysts have long said that if oil rose about $100 per barrel that demand would plummet.

It didn't.

Now that their own analysts have been proven wrong, the fear of high oil prices is gone.

That is a bad thing for the rest of us.

The more I read it, the more I like Pickens Plan

 

[OREGON85]

Algae is the first crop I've heard of that actually makes sense to grow for fuel. Everything else doesn't produce enough fuel per acre to really be worth it, especially when you consider how much fuel goes into producing the crop in the first place.

 

[ChestonScout]

Just a side note.....I believe Jon Godwin used to fabricate A LOT of race car roll cages. He is also the guy who did all the tube work on Stan's T REX 6x6


Cool stuff!

 

[Devel]

supposivly toyota is coming out with a diesel electric hybrid that gets 100mpg

 

[SAMI]

supposivly toyota is coming out with a diesel electric hybrid that gets 100mpg

This would be really cool. I haven't heard much about it, even being on Toyota forums.

BTW.. It's SUPPOSEDLY or SUPPOSABLY.. 'supposivly'... not a word. One of my biggest pet peaves, sorry. I had a friend who to this day still says it a ton. :-\

 

[Cody]

There was some indian company that had a diesel/electric hybrid P/U that was coming over I thought. I can't remember the name of it...ninja edit: googlefied!

http://www.autobloggreen.com/2008/0...us-market-with-with-a-diesel-hybrid-pickup-s/

http://jalopnik.com/379332/indian-m...rid-suv-first-pictures-of-first-indian-hybrid

Mahindra is the brand. I had seen a P/U before, but this is about the same thing. I think the hybrid was supposed to do like 40 mpg or so...

 

[SAMI]

That's the same company that's looking to buy Hummer

 

[I Lean]

This would be really cool. I haven't heard much about it, even being on Toyota forums.

BTW.. It's SUPPOSEDLY or SUPPOSABLY.. 'supposivly'... not a word. One of my biggest pet peaves, sorry. I had a friend who to this day still says it a ton. :-\

BTW.. It's SUPPOSEDLY. End of discussion. SupposaBly is no more a word than Supposivly.

Peaves is also not a word. What you're looking for is "peeves".

If you're going to rail on someone's grammar, get it right.

 

[SAMI]

Haha, i was going for supposedly originally, as that is what I use. But, dictionary.com did bring up 'supposably'. Sounds equally as lame as supposivly..

I go off the internet dictionary over Ileantionary

 

[Cody]

Well, Meat has alread discounted the credibility of any online dictionary. Send him a PM and I'm sure he can clue you in on what the preferred dictionary is amongst the literary elite. He wouldn't publicly disclose that information though. I think it's kind of like fight club.

 

[Devel]

This would be really cool. I haven't heard much about it, even being on Toyota forums.

In the automotive program at WSU you here things

 

[StrobeNGH]

Anyone see this:

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_37/b4099060491065.htm?chan=rss_topStories_ssi_5

Article about Ford's Fiesta (diesel), which gets 65 mpg, but is only sold in Europe.

 

[Greg]

Anyone see this:

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_37/b4099060491065.htm?chan=rss_topStories_ssi_5

Article about Ford's Fiesta (diesel), which gets 65 mpg, but is only sold in Europe.

That's quite interesting, but I'll do you one better...

http://www.allpar.com/model/intrepid-esx3.html

Dodge Intrepid ESX-3

The ESX3 costs only about $7,500 more than a comparable gasoline-powered car, down from a $15,000 premium with the ESX2, and $60,000 with the ESX. The ESX3's mild hybrid electric (or "mybrid") powertrain combines a clean diesel engine, electric motor, and lithium-ion battery to achieve 72 miles per gallon (3.3 liters/100 km). That is two miles per gallon better than the fuel efficiency of its predecessor, the ESX2 in 1998, and close to PNGV's goal of up to 80 mpg (2.9 liters/100 km). A unique electro-mechanical automatic transmission (EMAT) provides the fuel efficiency of a manual transmission with the convenience of an automatic. The lightweight body uses injection-molded thermoplastic technology that cuts weight and cost. The ESX3 weighs 2,250 pounds (1020 kg) while meeting all federal safety standards. The vehicle is more than 80 percent recyclable.

Basically Dodge engineers built a diesel/electric mid-size sedan and after a few revisions, they brought the production cost down to $7500 over the cost of a regular gasoline powered vehicle. The Intrepid was capable of over 70 MPG!!


More info-

http://www.iceposter.com/posters/cars/Dodge/Dodge_Intrepid_ESX3_Concept_2000/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodge_Intrepid_ESX

And to wrap it all up...

There are no plans to produce any of the ESX series of vehicles; the Intrepid nameplate has been retired, and Dodge has no immediate plans to produce a hybrid sedan.

Good job Dodge! Perhaps if you built this car, you wouldn't be on the verge of bankruptcy!