Hydraulic Hybrid Trucks
Created February 15, 2006, at 10:31 am by Anonymous
I just read a brief article suggesting that Ford is nearing the completion of an F-150 Hydraulic Hybrid that will supposedly achieve 60mpg. Has anyone heard of this or know any more information?
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Here's a link: http://www.greencar.com/index.cfm?content=features23
Essentially, this just uses compressed air to store a small amoung of energy. They hydraulic drive is quite common among heavy lift equipment. I don't see anything about 60 mpg. Hydraulic drive is generally used in huge, strong construction equipment. I'd believe something closer to 60 gallons per mile than 60 miles per gallon.
You wrote:
Essentially, this just uses compressed air to store a small amoung of energy.
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No, it uses compressed hydraulic fluid to store a LARGE amount of energy. There is far less energy loss with hydraulic storage and TONS of torque. The main disadvantage is weight. Dont knock this technology too fast. Also its easier to properly dispose of hyraulic fluid then a NMih battery.
Unfortunatly, compressing Hydraulic fluid (or any other fluid) is physically impossible as fluids are non-compressible. That is one of the main differences between a gas and a liquid.
If you look at the details of the hydraulic hybrid, there appears to be a 'reservoir' that I assume is filled with air or some other gas. This appears to be how energy is actually stored.
me thinks they are confusing compression with storage. An accumulator stores the power of the oil under pressure.
We now have our first hydraulic hybrid up and running, in a class 3 truck. It only weighs 300lbs more than the original truck power train. So far the system is running very efficiently. We will start to provide some data as it becomes available and verified.
The accumulator is filled with Nitrogen gas and energy is stored by pumping hydraulic fluid in and compressing the gas. The hydraulic fluid doesn't compress because, as ex EV1 driver stated, liquids are not compressible.
What are the specs of your system in the Class 3 truck? I've seen an article on the hydraulic hybrid UPS trucks that stated they use 4 accumulators of 22 gallons each capable of 5,000 psi. They stated the storage capacity of the total system was 2,000 hp-seconds, i.e. starting from full-capacity, it can deliver 100 hp for a duration of 20 seconds.
300 pounds seems small enough to be integrated into larger cars and most trucks and SUVs.
Hey, thanks for the 6th grade science lesson about the differences between liquids and gases. I don't understand why people write stuff here when they have absolutely no idea how the system works
Looks like UPS is driving around now using hydraulic hybrids
http://www.pressroom.ups.com/mediakits/factsheet/0,2305,1315,00.html
Someone has even managed to put one into a BMW 5 series
http://www.artemisip.com/appli_auto_transm.htm
This technology has some very promising results for sure. I'd love to try and combine water hybrid technology and hydraulics into one system. I think increases in efficiency would be tremendous based on what I've seen so far.
Video of the Artemis BMW driving
Oops link didn't work
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJw5AvvxBqg
GM built a hydraulic drive Blazer in 1972.
Never released to the public, but we drove it around our plant site,
until it was broken. Two dudes came down with suits and took every part back with them. Very hush hush.
Hydraulic drive trains are different than the hydrolic hybrids described here that really use compressed gas to store energy. Hydraulic drive trains are generally a means of allowing an ICE to operate at constant RPM for high efficiency while allowing the wheels or other PTO to operate at the speed that it needs to. It benefits from the ability to adjust to fast speed changes. They seem to work great in slow machines such as tractors or skip loaders but I've never heard of them working well in automobiles. I don't know why though.
They aren't great in automobiles because their efficiency under part load is shockingly bad despite their high power density. Hopefully some of these new technologies will improve on that or else they will be back to the farm.
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