Turbine Engine: No Pistons, No Lube, 30% Better Fuel Economy
There are more than 5,000,000 heavy duty trucks running up and down US highways each day. Every one of those trucks gets an average of 7 mpg, carries upwards of 200-300 gallons of diesel, and spews out potentially harmful emissions.
Like it or not, we depend on them to bring us our food, fuel, and products for everyday living. It’s a connection that most of us often forget about, only remembering it long enough to curse them as they slow us down on the highway.
It’s also an industry that has recently been hit hard by soaring fuel prices, and now, with the average price of diesel in the US at $4.70/gallon and climbing, it’s sure to get worse.
Needless to say, there’s a rising cacophony of voices within the trucking industry clamoring for relief. Most of this noise currently comes in the form of wanting a break in fuel prices, but really that’s just a temporary fix. Any solution with sticking power would have to offer both economic and environmental benefit — you know, win-win.
Enter Turbine Truck Engines. The company has developed an engine for heavy duty trucks called the Detonation Cycle Gas Turbine (DCGT). Key features of this engine technology include:
- Uses over 30% less fuel than current heavy duty engines
- 30%+ fewer emissions including nitrogen oxide (NO, NO2, N2O2) and carbon monoxide (CO)
- Operates on all fuels and mixtures of fuels: biofuels, hydrocarbon fuels, hydrogen and synthetic
- Has few moving parts, requiring much less maintenance
- Has no pistons or valves, and uses no lube oil, filters or pump
- Is air cooled and lightweight (less than 2 lbs. per hp)
The company has been aggressively seeking investors recently and last year won the prestigious Frost and Sullivan Award for Technology Innovation.
Currently Turbine Truck Engines holds several patents and has a few prototypes under its belt. When (and if) their technology finally reaches the market, the combined savings on maintenance and fuel, as well as environmental benefits, could make this engine extremely popular with truck drivers and trucking companies worldwide.
What do you think? Is it worthwhile to invest in this type of technology, or should we move past fuel altogether and focus on other things such as our rail infrastructure for movement of goods? Is that even possible? Are big rigs a permanent feature of our society? Is there any way to run them entirely on electricity?
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Image Credit: Turbine Truck Engines
There is no existing infrastructure for the trucking industry to use.
The energy density of current batteries is simply pathetic.
Ultra capacitors, if and when they are mass produced will help, but are nowhere near the energy density of diesel.
My off-the-cuff calculation based on current energy densities of LiOn off of wikipedia versus 400 gallons of diesel yields a semi dragging around 116 cubic metres of LiOn battery to do the long hauls.
Even if commuter traffic moves to electric, trucks will be longer in making the transition.
Improving current technology is only a good thing. As is finding more efficient transport methods like rail - which probably would be more popular if it had not been stiflingly over-regulated in comparison with the trucking fleets.
Frankly, I see nothing wrong with storing energy in diesel. Especially if we find reasonably efficient ways of generating it. Perhaps algae farms.
Reciprocating versus Revolving (no wasted energy reversing direction)
coupled with a heavy duty PIV transmission (Positively
Infinitely Variable)
Brilliant! Why didn’t I think of it
This would be a great transition until electric cars go mainstream. It will be a while before electric cars/battery tech gets to the point of powering large trucks. In the interim we will operate at some point in a mixed hydrocarbon/alternative environment.
Electric motors don’t have enough torque to haul freight? Gee, somebody better tell the railroads; they use electric motors to haul thousands of tons over the steepest mountain passes every day of the year - have for decades. Yes, they use diesels to generate the electricity that drives the motors, but the electric motors are what propel the trains, not the diesels.
The problem is not how powerful the electric motors are, but rather how to provide a mobile electric motor enough electrical power.
But back to the original topic. I can’t get to the website to see the prototype or info on it (must be overloaded) so I can’t make any judgements on it - but it sounds promising (reciprocating IC engines have always seemed primitive and inefficient to me and I used to work as a pro mech).
We need multiple solutions for our energy consumption problems because no one solution is going to be replace our current systems overnight. We need hybrids and other efficiency improvements because affordable fuel cells won’t be here for quite a while.
We really just need to move on and bite the bullet. These diesels are lowering our life quality which ripples down into everything.
Funny that the Germans ran the Panzer Divisions on synthetic fuel from German coal
reserves (without computer tech.) Yet 63 years later Exxon, Shell et al have never been able to make gas and diseal as the Germans did. …Or maybe they got the formula and burned it?
Adam
“but electric motors do NOT yet have the torque and power to haul multiple tones of cargo over a mountain chain, in the snow.”
You could not be more wrong. Electric motors make HUGE amounts of torque. That is why locomotives use electric motors, that is why the Tesla EV is so fast 0-60.
There are valid critiques of electric vehicles (range, recharge time…) stick to those; don’t make things up, or speak of that which you do not know.
I am a retired Mechanic,and agree with what is being said here. A piston engine by design is beating it self to death through normal operation.. A turbine engine (JET) is smooth operating etc but a fuel hog. However they will burn about anything that squeeze in a fuel nozzle. Im a Big fan of electric power and we need more and better research on now retrofitting what we have in operation.Than go make the ion engine or anti matter drive or what ever we care to invent. Bill
Adam, so explain how a locomotive works. You do know that diesel locomotives use the diesel engine to drive a generator at constant speed, and then electric motors at the wheels to propel the train, right?
turbine power is the way to go! in the world of general / commercial avation, turbine engines dominate for the reasons listed in the article: they generate a very sizable amount of power, and are much easier to maintain then piston engines do to the simplicity of design. now today’s aircraft engine only accepts the gasoline blend jet-a, but the fact that they could make a truck turbine accept all major blends out there could be a great asset to the trucking industries.
this may not be the perfect solution, but at least it will greatly cut down on time spent for repairs, cost of parts, and gas!