Sir John Whitmore
Daily Telegraph
June 5, 2006
Most people believe that the future will be powered by hydrogen, but that affordable fuel-cell vehicles are decades away. Hugo Spowers's engineering degree and MBA were sufficient to convince him that the barriers were neither technical nor financial but human. He formed a consortium with BOC, Morgan Cars, QinetiQ and Cranfield and Oxford universities, with funding from the DTI, to design a fuel-cell car with a difference. Spowers' company is called OSCar and the project is called LIFECar - LIghtweight Fuel Efficient Car.
Last week, he and I began a discussion by considering transport on land, air and sea. Aviation is the most problematic: carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxides are more damaging at altitude, the fuel is tax-free and consumption is very high. Yet road transport still accounts for 25 per cent of our fossil fuel use.
Where do we start? By thinking differently. A sustainable system lives off revenue - limited by the rate of supply, but of infinite duration. Our capital system (the extraction of oil) is not limited by rate of supply - but it is finite. Reducing the capital that we consume does not get us to a sustainable world. Beating your spouse less hard is no answer!
There is a conflict of interest between individual and collective transport. The motor industry strives to attract us onto the roads, and alternatives are limited. Road building is seen as investment, while improving rail is called subsidy. Why? Sustainability should be our guiding principle, not merely an option when cheap and easy.
We must improve and speed up trains to reduce overland air travel. With inter-city speeds of 350mph demonstrated in Japan, this is realistic. A means of trans-oceanic travel also exists; variously known as a Wig, Wise or (in its native Russian) Ekranoplan, this boat/aircraft hybrid uses ground-effect to fly a few feet above the surface and can transport huge loads at speed while using far less fuel than an aeroplane and causing negligible upper air damage; there is more, with fascinating video footage, at www.se-technology.com/wig.
And so to individual or family vehicles. Let's call them Movement Modules. If we take our egos off the road, MMs can be cheap, long-lasting (20 years), low-maintenance and leased rather than owned. Car makers profit from the opposite of what society needs, and therefore need regulation; if they lease MMs, they are rewarded for what we need and the system self-regulates.
The best power source is the fuel cell, with an electric motor at each wheel. With a petrol or diesel engine, weight, acceleration and top speed are all coupled, so the power required for acceleration delivers a top speed higher than necessary. By using OSCar's "Network Hybrid" architecture, the power demanded for cruising and acceleration are decoupled. The fuel cell is sized to maintain the required top speed, while braking regenerates energy that is stored in capacitors to provide 75 per cent of the power required for acceleration. Thus the fuel cell can be smaller, the vehicle lighter.
Cost is seen as a barrier to fuel cells, but the metric of cost per kilowatt is flawed: petrol engines are about £30 per kilowatt and fuel cells are £2,000 per kilowatt, but we buy cars by the car, not the kilowatt. Designing a lightweight car around a fuel cell, as opposed to grafting a fuel cell into a petrol car, reduces power requirements by about four-fifths. And if cars were leased rather than sold, they could supply revenue to the manufacturer for five times longer, making the fuel cell appear five times cheaper. So the metric misleads by a factor of 25!
Hydrogen sourcing, distribution and storage seem problematic, but we must think differently. Hydrogen is not a fuel but an energy carrier, obtainable from many different sources, whichever is best for the time and the place.
The storage problem evaporates if less fuel is used. OSCar's focus is on reducing consumption by whole system design. This is quicker and cheaper, and we need to do it anyway. By definition a sustainable system has to live off revenue, demand must be adjusted to meet supply and so consumption becomes far more significant than it has been in our refuelling infrastructure. This new architecture yields a fourfold improvement in consumption.
Of course a prodigious rate of innovation is required. Hitherto we have encouraged this through intellectual property rights, which harness the efforts of innovators, for the good of all, by granting a monopoly. But is this the best way? The example of Linux software would suggest not. The "Open Source" philosophy can incentivise a community to innovate for the good of all without restricting access to the output. The rate of progress is higher, the technology can spread more rapidly and the benefits are more equitably distributed.
This betrays the origin of the name OSCar - Open Source Car. Expect to hear a lot more about it.
Sir John Whitmore welcomes responses;
e-mail
motoring.desk@telegraph.co.uk
Tuesday, June 06, 2006
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Technology Submission -State of the Art - Novel InFlow Tech - Featured Project Development; 1-Gearturbine, 2-Imploturbocompressor
1-GEARTURBINE PROJECT
Rotary-Turbo-InFlow Tech
Atypical InFlow Thermodynamic Technology Proposal Submission Novel Fueled Motor Engine Type
*State of the art Innovative concept Top system Higher efficient percent.*Power by bar, for Air-Planes, Sea-Boats, Land-Transport & Dynamic Power-Plant Generation. -Have similar system of the Aeolipile Heron Steam device from Alexandria 10-70 AD. -New Form-Function Motor-Engine Device. Next Step, Epic Design Change, Broken-Seal Revelation. -Desirable Power-Plant Innovation.
YouTube; * Atypical New • GEARTURBINE / Retrodynamic = DextroRPM VS LevoInFlow + Ying Yang Thrust Way Type - Non Waste Looses
-This innovative concept consists of hull and core where are held all 8 Steps of the work-flow which make the concept functional. The core has several gears and turbines which are responsible for these 8 steps (5 of them are dedicated to the turbo stages). The first step is fuel compression, followed by 2 cold turbo levels. The fourth step is where the fuel starts burning – combustion stage, which creates thrust for the next, 5th step – thrust step, which provides power to the planetary gears and turbines and moves the system. This step is followed by two hot turbo steps and the circle is enclosed by the final 8th step – bigger turbine. All this motion in a retrodynamic circumstance effect, wich is plus higher RPM speed by self motion. The Reaction at front of the action.
*8-X/Y Thermodynamic CYCLE - Way Steps: 1)1-Compression / bigger 2)2-Turbo 1 cold 3)2-Turbo 2 cold 4)2-Combustion - circular motion flames / opposites 5)2-Thrust - single turbo & planetary gears / ying yang 6)2-Turbo 2 hot 7)2-Turbo 1 hot 8)1-Turbine / bigger
-With Retrodynamic Dextrogiro vs Levogiro Phenomenon Effect. / Rotor-RPM VS InFlow / front to front; "Collision-Interaction Type" - inflow vs blades-gear-move. Technical unique dynamic innovative motion mode. [Retrodynamic Reaction = When the inflow have more velocity the rotor have more RPM Acceleration, with high (XY Position) Momentum] Which the internal flow (and rotor) duplicate its speed, when activated being in a rotor (and inflow) with [inverse] opposite Turns. The Reaction at front of the action. A very strong Novel torque power concept.
-Non waste parasitic looses for; friction, cooling, lubrication & combustion.
-Shape-Mass + Rotary-Motion = Inertia-Dynamic / Form-Function Wide [Flat] Cylindrical shape + positive dynamic rotary mass = continue Inertia positive tendency motion. Kinetic Rotating Mass. Tendency of matter to continue to move. Like a Free-Wheel.
-Combustion 2Two continue circular [Rockets] flames. [ying yang] opposite one to the other. – With 2TWO very long distance INFLOW [inside propulsion] CONDUITS. -4 TURBOS Rotary Total Thrust-Power Regeneration Power System. -Mechanical direct 2two [Small] Planetary Gears at polar position. -Like the Ying Yang Symbol/Concept.
-The Mechanical Gear Power Thrust Point Wide out the Rotor circumference were have much more lever [HIGH Torque] POWER THRUST. -No blade erosion by sand & very low heat target signature profile. -3 points of power thrust; 1-flow way, 2-gear, 3-turbine. *Patent; Dic. 1991 IMPI Mexico #197187 All Rights Reserved. Carlos Barrera.
·2-Imploturbocompressor; One Moving Part System Excellence Design - The InFlow Interaction comes from Macro-Flow and goes to Micro-Flow by Implossion - Only One Compression Step; Inflow, Compression and outflow at one simple circular dynamic motion Concept.
*·“Excellence in Design" because is only one moving part. Only one unique compression step. Inflow and out flow at the same one system, This invention by its nature a logic and simple conception in the dynamics flow mechanics area. The invention is a wing made of one piece in a rotating motion, contained in a pair cavity system connected by implocavity, and interacting dynamically with a flow, that passes internally "Imploded" through its simple mechanism. This flow can be gas (air) or liquid (water). And have two different applications, in two different form-function; this one can be received (using the dynamic flow passage, as a receiver). Or it can be generated (with a power plant, generating a propulsion).
An example cut be, as a Bike needs a chain to work from motor to wheel. And for the Imploturbocompressor application, cut be as; in a circumstance at the engine, as an A-activate flow, and with a a tube flow conduit going to the wheel as a B-receiving-flow the work use.
To see a Imploturbocompressor animation, is posible on a simple way, just to check the Hurricane Satellite view, and is the same implo inflow way nature.
And when the flow that is received and that is intended to be used at best, must no necessarily by a exhausting or rejection gas, but must be a dynamic passing gas or liquid flow with the only intention to count it or to measure it. This could be possible at the passing and interacting period when it passes inside its simple mechanism. This can be in any point of the work flow trajectory.
In case the flow that is received is a water falling by gravity, and a dynamo is placed on the rotary bar, the Imploturbocompressor can profit an be obtained by generating? electricity such as obtained by the pelton well, like I say before. The "Imploturbocompressor", is a good option to pump water, or a gas flow, and all kinds of pipes lines dynamic moves.
Or only receive the air-liquid flow, in order to measure its passage with a counter placed on the bar, because when this flow passes through the simple mechanism of a rotating wing made of only one piece it interacts within the implocavities system. And this flow can be air wind, with the difference of can have an horizontal work position, and that particle technical circumstances make an easy way for urban building work new use application, and have wind flow from all the sides 180 grades view. The aforementioned information about this invention refers to technical applications, such as a dynamic flow receiver. (whether being gas or liquid).
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