Overnight charging via on board gas turbine?
Discussion
Could a small gas turbine or two, well sound insulated, burn a low cost fuel and convert it to enough electricity which would fully charge a vehicle overnight (ie, 10pm-7am)?
Could this be a possible solution to the problem of a lack of home charging infrastructure? Or would they need to be rebuilt too often?
Could this be a possible solution to the problem of a lack of home charging infrastructure? Or would they need to be rebuilt too often?
I went to an engineering talk by Bladon Jets some years back, and this is precisely what they were envisaging as one potential application for their product - using a micro turbine to charge an electric vehicle (not just overnight but also while driving). I forget the efficiency figures stated at the time, but I do recall being very impressed by them.
No idea how they have progressed since then - their primary focus was on gensets, but they had Tata investment so hopefully didn’t run out of cash along the way.
No idea how they have progressed since then - their primary focus was on gensets, but they had Tata investment so hopefully didn’t run out of cash along the way.
Edited by SlowAndDull on Friday 4th December 07:48
SWoll said:
BopoWarls said:
You say that but if the generator uses less fuel to generate the electricity to cover a mile than the car it's charging would need to do the same it's still an improvement?(this is because putting in fossil fuelled charging stations enables people to buy EVS who otherwise wouldn't. That means that when they aren't charging off the fossil fuelled charger, ie most of the time, they are hardly producing any co2, and the few journeys where they have to charge with fossil fuel overhead are negated!) For remote townships and country dwellings this makes a lot of sense. The genset shown is iirc in austrailia and allows people with EVs to drive out from Sidney (where they have been driving all week on clean, renwable solar, with zero tailpipe emissions (ie nice clean city) and out into the country at the weekend with their EV. The net benefit is masively positive
https://thedriven.io/2018/12/14/diesel-charge-evs-...
Charging using that has an i3 using as much diesel per mile as a BMW 3 series diesel.
To be fair it is just an experiment and intended as a temporary stopgap until they can get battery and solar solutions up and running.
Charging using that has an i3 using as much diesel per mile as a BMW 3 series diesel.
To be fair it is just an experiment and intended as a temporary stopgap until they can get battery and solar solutions up and running.
No other reason for the topic other than curiosity - however I seem to recall that the concept of charing via turbine whilst driving was possible, but was ultimately found to me unviable from a commercial POV.
So I thought, why not do it overnight whilst the vehicle isn't being used for hours and there is no charging infrastructure. Perhaps you could do the same for electric motorcycles, with a turbine inside a fake exhaust.
So I thought, why not do it overnight whilst the vehicle isn't being used for hours and there is no charging infrastructure. Perhaps you could do the same for electric motorcycles, with a turbine inside a fake exhaust.
ReverendCounter said:
Is that the turbine alone or does it have a generator attached?
That's just the turbine - I didn't get to see it in action unfortunately, it was just brought along for us geeks to drool over (not sure the Holiday Inn would have been too pleased with that firing up in one of their meeting rooms). Fascinating R&D story behind it, including the need to design a test rig suitable for the high RPM.
SlowAndDull said:
...Fascinating R&D story behind it, including the need to design a test rig suitable for the high RPM.
I was wondering if something just ticking over at, perhaps 15k for a longer period might be viable, instead of 120k rpm (!) but as stated maybe small ICE would be a better application.Max_Torque said:
SWoll said:
BopoWarls said:
You say that but if the generator uses less fuel to generate the electricity to cover a mile than the car it's charging would need to do the same it's still an improvement?(this is because putting in fossil fuelled charging stations enables people to buy EVS who otherwise wouldn't. That means that when they aren't charging off the fossil fuelled charger, ie most of the time, they are hardly producing any co2, and the few journeys where they have to charge with fossil fuel overhead are negated!) For remote townships and country dwellings this makes a lot of sense. The genset shown is iirc in austrailia and allows people with EVs to drive out from Sidney (where they have been driving all week on clean, renwable solar, with zero tailpipe emissions (ie nice clean city) and out into the country at the weekend with their EV. The net benefit is masively positive
From a pure economy and indeed CO2 perspective I doubt there is a significant difference (particularly when you consider having to transport diesel to the sites) but a significant improvement in local conditions from not poisoning people with NOx and particulates.
SlowAndDull said:
ReverendCounter said:
Is that the turbine alone or does it have a generator attached?
That's just the turbine - I didn't get to see it in action unfortunately, it was just brought along for us geeks to drool over (not sure the Holiday Inn would have been too pleased with that firing up in one of their meeting rooms). Fascinating R&D story behind it, including the need to design a test rig suitable for the high RPM.http://modelaircraftcompany.com/newshop/en/15-micr...
tr7v8 said:
A fair few of these arounds these days for model aircraft. Tend to have limited time before overhauls & fuel consumption is high.
http://modelaircraftcompany.com/newshop/en/15-micr...
I had no idea you could get model jet aircraft - they look amazing!http://modelaircraftcompany.com/newshop/en/15-micr...
ETA: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hhwv-Hos8xA (sorry completely off topic)
Edited by SlowAndDull on Friday 4th December 12:53
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