Transportation Integrating Green Energy Resources (TIGER)™: A Solar-Biodiesel Hybrid Commuter Vehicle

Author(s):  
Sushil H. Bhavnani

Over the past two decades, several options have emerged as alternatives to traditional internal combustion engine-powered transportation systems. The alternative power sources garnering the most commercial interest have been hydrogen fuel-cells, battery-powered electric, propane, biodiesel, ethanol, and compressed natural gas. “Transportation Integrating Green Energy Resources” (TIGER)™ is a prototype hybrid vehicle that optimizes consumer desire for performance, alternative fuels, and environmental emissions reduction. It is powered by a combination of an electric motor and a biodiesel internal combustion engine. It is a two-passenger vehicle with a solarelectric, zero-emissions primary energy source for the daily commute while still permitting long-range travel utilizing the range-extension provided by the biodiesel engine. The average daily commute in the United States is less than 50 miles. During daily commuting use, the vehicle will operate solely as a solar-electric car. The electric vehicle (EV) system will be charged by deployable solar cells on its top surface while it is parked in a sun-lit parking lot during the workday. This charge will be sufficient to replenish energy used during a 50-mile commute. The commute is patterned as being comprised of 40 mph segments representing travel on arterial city roads and a 70-mph segment representing interstate highway travel. The biodiesel engine functions as the secondary power source to permit long-range trips with a refueling stop planned for around 350 miles; comparable to a conventional vehicle. The paper will report key elements of the vehicle design, including trade-offs between energy efficiency and passenger comfort/safety. Details of the various sub-systems such as the energy sources, the hybrid drive-train, and subsystem integration will be presented.

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (16) ◽  
pp. 5467
Author(s):  
Po-Tuan Chen ◽  
Cheng-Jung Yang ◽  
Kuohsiu David Huang

To avoid unnecessary power loss during switching between the various power sources of a composite electric vehicle while achieving smooth operation, this study focuses on the development and dynamic simulation analysis of a control system for the power of a parallel composite vehicle. This system includes a power integration and distribution mechanism, which enables the two power sources of the internal combustion engine and electric motor to operate independently or in coordination to meet the different power-output requirements. The integration of the electric motor and battery-charging engine reduces the system complexity. To verify the working efficiency of the energy control strategy for the power system, the NEDC2000 cycle is used for the vehicle driving test, a fuzzy logic controller is established using Matlab/Simulink, and the speed and torque analysis of the components related to power system performance are conducted. Through a dynamic simulation, it is revealed that this fuzzy logic controller can adjust the two power sources (the motor and internal combustion engine) appropriately. The internal combustion engine can be maintained in the optimal operating region with low, medium, and high driving speeds.


10.14311/1540 ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrej Chríbik ◽  
Marián Polóni ◽  
Ján Lach

This paper deals with the use of the internal combustion piston engine, which is a drive unit for micro-cogeneration units. The introduction is a brief statement of the nature of gas mixture compositions that are useful for the purposes of combustion engines, together with the basic physical and chemical properties relevant to the burning of this gas mixture. Specifically, we will discuss low-energy gases (syngases) and mixtures of natural gas with hydrogen. The second section describes the conversion of the Lombardini LGW 702 combustion engine that is necessary for these types of combustion gases. Before the experimental measurements, a simulation in the Lotus Engine simulation program was carried out to make a preliminary assessment of the impact on the performance of an internal combustion engine. The last section of the paper presents the experimental results of partial measurements of the performance and emission parameters of an internal combustion engine powered by alternative fuels.


Author(s):  
Yufu Xu ◽  
Qiongjie Wang ◽  
Xianguo Hu ◽  
Jinsi Chen

More and more attention has been paid to alternative fuel in internal combustion engine. One of alternative fuels is to convert straw biomass to biomass fuel. Various methods and apparatuses used for converting straw biomass to bio-fuel were invented and developed. However, alternative fuel from biomass can not be used well in internal combustion engine. The reason is complicated and relative with the separation technology of bio-fuel and corrosion, wear, lubrication and combustion chemical reaction between bio-fuel and the surface of combustion room. It is necessary to study the tribological properties of bio-fuel in order to instead the current gasoline or diesel oil in internal combustion engine in the future. In the present study, the straw based bio-oil obtained by liquidizing process was chosen to evaluate its lubrication by MQ-800 fourball tribometer, in which extreme pressure and friction coefficient and wear resistance were measured respectively. The experimental results showed that the extreme pressure of the bio-fuel was up to 392 N, and the extreme pressure of diesel oil was 333 N. The frictional coefficient of bio-fuel varies between 0.08 and 0.11. The wear scar diameter increased with load slowly in 30min. SEM images indicate that lots of thin and dense belt-like ploughs were presented on the rubbed ball surface. The chemical compositions of the worn zone on the ball surface were analyzed by XPS, the thermal property and variation of chemical compositions of bio-fuel before and after friction and wear tests were studied by TGA and GC-MS, respectively. It was shown that the rubbing surface film was composed of FeS, FeSO4 and organic compounds with C-C, −COH and −COOH groups.


2021 ◽  
Vol 41 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 58-71
Author(s):  
Constantine Hadjilambrinos

At the end of the 19th-century three technologies had emerged as sources of motive power for the automobile: steam, internal combustion, and electric motors. In 1900, in the United States and around the world, each of these powered a roughly equal number of automobiles. Thus, the early period of automobile development offers fertile ground for the study of technological path choice. At that time, it appeared that the electric motor was poised to become the dominant automotive technology. However, the internal combustion engine achieved this status instead. Although a large number of studies have examined the history of the automobile with a view to determining the reasons for the emergence of the internal combustion engine as the dominant technology for the car engine (especially its choice over the electric motor), no consensus has emerged of what the critical factors were. A close reexamining of the history allows us to identify the years 1900-1904 as the period during which the automobile’s technological path was determined. A review of the conditions prevailing during this period and the stages of development of the sociotechnical systems in which each of the alternative automotive technologies was embedded helps us identify the aspiration for touring as the key factor fixing the path for the technological development of the automobile from that point on.


2010 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-94 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nuno Luís Madureira

AbstractThis article explains how oil as an energy carrier evolved alongside the technology of the steam engine. In practical terms, fuel oil was adapted to machines that were originally devised to be coal-fuelled and this led to the flexible switchover between energy carriers. The article links the micro account of technological developments with the macro records of energy consumption, to reveal how steam technology set the stage for the commoditization of oil, the customary fuel of the internal combustion engine. The analysis of the oil–steam combine embraces its diffusion across leading producing nations such as Russia and the United States, the diffusion in industrial and transport activities in South America, and the diffusion throughout European navies. What was at stake was the transformation of oil into a geostrategic good and the triggering of an international race for the seizure of fossil fuels.


2008 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 307-329
Author(s):  
Krzysztof Biernat ◽  
Adrian Jeziorkowski

The paper presents most popular biofuels with their basic physicochemical properties in comparison with conventional fuels, the article also contains present normalizations of selected alternative fuels, the possibilities of supplying modern internal combustion engine with biofuels with requiring changes in their constructions were estimated on the basis of collected documentation.


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