Nissan To Bring All-Electric Vehicle To Market By 2010
February 29, 2008
Nissan has re-affirmed its commitment to bring an electric vehicle to the market by 2010. The leading concept candidate that could meet that timetable is the Pivo2 all-electric vehicle, which Nissan first introduced in 2005 and continues to build on.
The Pivo all-electric vehicle is a radical departure from conventional automotive engineering, in both its visual appearance and its operation. The Pivo2 concept was designed to seat three passengers. The driver is seated centrally in the passenger compartment and the cabin is capable of 360° rotation, allowing passengers to enter and exit through a single, centralized door. With the rotating passenger cabin and an innovative wheel design, the driver is always facing forward, regardless of the vehicle’s orientation. With the Pivo2’s design, the car can move instantly in any direction.
The Pivo2 features an electric motor at the front of the vehicle, and the design calls for four wheel hub motors. Nissan has a working prototype with the wheel-mounted drive motors, but indicates that a production vehicle that incorporates them may be as far off as 2015.
Like most electric vehicles, the Pivo2 is powered by lithium-ion batteries. Currently, the concept vehicle is designed to accelerate to a top speed of 120 km/h and has a range of 125 km. The vehicle requires a 6-hour charge which could limit its usefulness in congested areas.
Nissan has also integrated a “robotic agent” into the Pivo2, whose purpose is to provide the driver with needed information, and to monitor the driver’s mood with built-in facial analysis technology. If the robotic agent determines that the driver is in a poor state of mind, it will “talk” or “listen” to the driver to elevate the driver’s emotional state.
The Pivo and Pivo2 are not the only Nissan electric concept vehicles. Nissan also created the Mixim electric concept that featured the Nissan “Super Motor” electric power train. The Mixim also featured independent electric motors on each axle. It’s likely that a production version of the Pivo2 would feature elements of both of Nissan’s electric concept vehicles.
New Method For Producing Free Hydrogen
February 28, 2008
Jerry Woodall, a researcher at Purdue University has developed a new way to produce hydrogen on a large scale. The discovery could lead to systems that generate hydrogen for vehicles and eliminate the need for carrying stored hydrogen on-board. One of the major problems with using hydrogen is that it binds so easily with other elements that keeping hydrogen pure is a challenge.
The new method uses an aluminum alloy submersed in water. The alloy reacts with the oxygen in water and splits it away from the hydrogen. The result is aluminum oxide, which can be easily recycled back into aluminum, and free hydrogen. The alloy material includes a concoction of gallium-indium-tin that is inert, and is for the most part, completely recoverable.
The aluminum and gallium-indium-tin alloy is slow cooled. Woodall and his team discovered that when they quick-cooled the mixture, they were left with two independent alloys, one of which was in a liquid state. The reaction took place as desired, but the liquid gallium-indium-tin mixture seriously reduced the commercial potential of the compound. By slow cooling the mixture, the materials remained in an homogenous state, making it easier to handle and opening the possibility of transporting aluminum alloy briquettes as a fuel source.
Overall, the process could not only create a viable source of free hydrogen, it can also improve the safety of using hydrogen as fuel, and reduce the CO2 emissions generated by vehicles. The aluminum oxide recycling process does create CO2 emissions, but Woodall estimates that overall CO2 emissions could be reduced by as much as two-thirds if this process were substituted for gasoline combustion.
An added benefit of the process is a reduction in the cost of aluminum production. Aluminum is refined from bauxite ore in an expensive process that consumes a lot of energy. Recycling aluminum from aluminum oxide is much less energy intensive. According to Woodall, the cost of producing this type of energy (as both hydrogen and heat) would work out to about 10 cents per kWh if the aluminum oxide was recycled 60 times.
Bringing this process to a mass production state would require significant expansion of aluminum processing and recycling facilities, so you’re unlikely to be buying aluminum briquettes anytime soon, but the process of creating free hydrogen is attractive and creates another possibility when considering conversion to a hydrogen economy.
Honda Reheats The Steam Hybrid Concept
February 27, 2008
Honda is examining ways to capture and recycle waste heat energy. The company is currently examining the potential of the Rankine cycle, a closed thermodynamic cycle that converts external heat to work. According to the company’s preliminary results, the Rankine cycle can regenerate three times as much energy as a regenerative braking system can.
The Honda Rankine system uses the vehicle’s waste heat to generate steam. A high-pressure water pump forces water into a modified catalytic converter with an integrated evaporator. Using heat from the catalytic converter, the evaporator turns the water into steam. The steam is shunted to a volumetric expander, where it powers a generator, and the resulting electricity is stored in the vehicle’s on-board battery pack.
To test the impact of the Rankine cycle, Honda modified a production Stream crossover, which is sold in Japan and Europe. The unmodified vehicle uses a 2.0L direct injection gasoline engine. The company outfitted the test vehicle with the Rankine system, and added a steam control system to regulate the temperature and pressure of the steam. The control system enables the Rankine system to respond to changes in the load on the engine, and can optimize the performance of the system based on driving conditions.
Overall, the modifications on the test vehicle showed that the volumetric expander can generate as much as 43 hp, although the maximum thermal efficiency of the unit is 13% at 30 hp.
Honda isn’t ready to commit to the technology for production vehicles yet. The company wants to see higher efficiencies before considering this for the mass market.
In 2005, BMW developed the Turbosteamer, a steam-based power generation system, which recaptures waste heat from the vehicle’s coolant system and engine exhaust to heat water in a closed reservoir to 550°C. An expander converts the pressure into mechanical energy and transfers the power to the crankshaft. According to BMW, about 80 percent of a vehicle’s waste heat energy could be recycled into usable power.
BMW’s version of the “Turbosteamer” steam hybrid provided an additional 14-hp and an overall improvement in efficiency of 15 percent. The Turbosteamer includes a second heat capture system that uses ethanol in place of water and operates at a temperature of 100° C- 150° C. The second system also dumps its recaptured energy into the vehicle’s powertrain and adds a modest 10 kW of power. The Turbosteamer works best with gasoline engines. Reduced emissions from diesel engines means that less heat can be recaptured and recycled.
At the time of its development, BMW planned to make the modifications universally available on all of its existing and future models, but did not expect to have a production version of the technology ready until about 2015. Additionally, the prototype system added 220 pounds to the test vehicle, which was unacceptable when considering the measured efficiency gains.
New Separator Film May Advance Li-ion Battery Safety
February 26, 2008
Advances in separator materials may enable the safe use of lithium-ion batteries in electric and hybrid electric vehicles. Current hybrids use NiMH batteries, which lack the long-life needed to power the major systems on hybrid vehicles.
Li-ion batteries are commonly used in smaller devices, including phones, portable music players and laptops, but the technology poses serious safety issues. Li-ion batteries were at the center of several multi-billion dollar recalls that affected laptop manufacturers in 2006 and 2007. Several reports of battery fires - some leading to personal injuries - underscore the dangers inherent in the use of Li-ion technology.
Li-ion batteries rely on porous separator films that prevent the battery’s anode and cathode from reacting spontaneously. Failure in the separator films can cause a catastrophic runaway reaction that leads to an enormous, instantaneous discharge of energy and opens the potential for an explosion and/or fire.
Li-ion batteries operate somewhat differently in laptops and portable electronics than they would in automobiles, primarily because the laptop battery is designed to discharge steadily over time. In the automotive environment, the Li-ion battery would be responsible for storing large amounts of energy that would allow for controlled discharge while at the same time supplying instant power for accessories and systems whose power consumption varies widely during the vehicle’s operation. Given the amount of energy an automotive Li-ion battery must store, the safety risk of its use in an automobile is staggering.
To help mitigate the risk of catastrophic failure in automotive Li-ion batteries, Exxon Mobil recently introduced a new separator film designed specifically for automotive applications. The composite, multilayer separator film offers several different operational characteristics that combine to provide a safer separator for automotive batteries. For example, one layer is specifically designed to intervene on a runaway reaction, and shut the battery down before a catastrophic failure can occur.
One major problem with existing separator films is that a sharp rise in the internal temperature of the battery can induce a heat-related failure in an otherwise working separator film, triggering a runaway reaction. Exxon Mobile’s new film not only shuts the battery down when it reaches an internal temperature of 140° C, the film itself is designed to withstand thermal breakdown until it reaches 190° C. The combined action of the shutdown layer and the higher thermal stability of the film should prevent heat-related film failures altogether. Electrovaya has already announced that it plans to use the new separator film in its all-electric Maya-300 vehicle.
The flip-side of the safety question for automakers is one of liability. GM and Toyota are both racing to put a Li-ion powered hybrid on the market in 2009 or 2010, and both admit that finding answers to the safety questions posed by the use of Li-ion batteries will be a major determinant in their ability to succeed in the hybrid arena. Tackling the issue of separator films, and their performance during a catastrophic event will allow automakers to bring safer, more viable hybrid passenger vehicle programs to market.
BMW To Show Two New Hybrid Concepts At 2008 Geneva Show
February 25, 2008
BMW has announced that it will introduce the BMW Vision Efficient Dynamics concept car, featuring mild active hybrid technology. The concept vehicle is based on the X5, and is powered by a twin-turbo, four-cylinder diesel engine. The vehicle also features an eight-speed automatic transmission with extended gear ratios to further improve fuel economy.
BMW’s goal with the Vision is to deliver high fuel economy and low CO2 emissions. The Vision EfficientDynamics offers 43.5 mpg and a CO2 output of 172 g/km. With those numbers, the Vision EfficientDynamics offers the highest mileage of any 4×4 SUV on the market. BMW didn’t neglect power in its bid to redesign the engine. The vehicle can go from 0 to 60 in less than nine seconds.
To achieve these ratings, the modified diesel engine, which delivers 204 hp on its own, is supplemented during acceleration by a compact generator mounted directly on the vehicle’s gearbox. This approach gives the engine an additional 20-hp boost on-demand, and enables the concept vehicle’s relatively small engine to deliver as much power as the one found in a conventional X5. The alternator is integrated into the vehicle’s all-aluminum crankcase.
The vehicle uses roof-mounted solar panels and a brake energy recapture system to collect otherwise wasted energy, and stores it in on-board Li-ion batteries housed in the vehicle’s rear compartment. The batteries can be used to power or supplement the vehicle’s 120-volt climate control system, and electric coolant and power steering pumps, which run in parallel with a conventional 12-volt system.
The X5-based mild hybrid will be joined on the show floor by BMW’s X6 Active Hybrid concept. This vehicle features a dual-mode hybrid electric system, co-developed with GM and Daimler Chrysler. Twin electric motors can be used as a generator to power each other, or can be used to boost acceleration and charge the vehicle’s batteries. The two-mode active transmission integrates the batteries, electronics and a power inverter, and can be optimized for low-speed driving or high-speed driving. The hybrid X6 can boost fuel economy by 20 percent over its conventional cousin.
The 2008 Geneva Auto Show runs from March 4 - 16, and will host several hybrid vehicle concepts and vehicle introductions.
Mercury Mariner Hybrid Review
February 17, 2008
Ford Motor Company’s subsidiary Mercury Mariner has done it again. The unit, which is best known for its innovative and environmentally friendly car models, has produced the Mercury Mariner hybrid in 2006. Technically, this fuel-efficient vehicle is very much similar in features to its car sibling, called the Ford Escape Hybrid.
Identically, the Mercury Mariner hybrid is operating at a ‘full’ hybrid capacity. The means, the vehicle is able to make use of its gasoline and electric powered engines. As a hybrid, there are specific cases and instances when the car would use a combination of both engines. Because of such, it is logical and practical that the Mercury Mariner hybrid is able to save on furl consumption. That feature is particularly important especially these days when oil prices constantly jumps up and global warming is prompting people to reduce on carbon emissions.
In the casual car market, the Mercury Mariner hybrid is considered soccer-mom vehicle, because of its sporty look, being a sports utility vehicle.
The exterior
On the outside, it is very evident that the Mercury Mariner hybrid is a sturdy car, being an SUV. It has greater height than the sedans. The four-door vehicle is also sporty, obviously having a spacious inside, which is very much evident in the outside. To begin with, the Mercury Mariner hybrid is quite a small SUV. To further describe it, imagine the built of the Saturn VUE, the Mazda CX-7 and the Toyota RAV4.
Being as SUV, it follows that the Mercury Mariner’s overall car design is exquisite. The car comes in superior exterior colors, which enable anyone to choose from a wide variety of shades and hues. The roof has a space where luggage could be accommodated.
The interior
Looking at the inside of the car, you could see that the hybrid car has new seats that are all very much comfortable. The leather used in the seats are of superior quality. There are plastic linings along the interior’s pillars, dash and doors. Some critics assert that the interior of the Mercury Mariner hybrid would still need to accommodate few more improvements, though the company assures that it is doing efforts to match the performance in this factor of the Japanese rivals.
Inside, the driver and passenger can hardly hear any noise, though at certain occasions whines could be heard as a product of engine switching from gasoline to engine and vice versa. The temperature control in the interior is also outstanding as well as the overall spaciousness, good for accommodating baggage and passengers.
Performance
Cruising smoothly and comfortably would surely get out the best performance from the Mercury Mariner hybrid. The fuel-efficient car has sufficient power to deliver the expectations of those who want and need to speed up. From a standstill, the car is able to reach up to 60 miles per hour in just about 10.8 seconds.
As its setback, the Mercury Mariner hybrid is suffering from poor control feel that is characteristic is all hybrid cars, not just this vehicle. When the car brakes, it efficiently prompts regenerative braking that automatically converts mechanical energy from sudden stopping into stored electric current in the built-in batteries. The car’s lack of enough tire grip is expected as the vehicle is able to quickly stop from about 60 miles hour of acceleration for just within 138 feet.
Safety
The Mercury Mariner hybrid is much safer than other fuel-efficient cars. It comes in standard airbags that are being deployed from all seats whenever there is sudden collision or crashing. There are also curtain-type airbags for head protection, which is a further safety feature.
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February 8, 2008
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