Non-electric Ford F-150 hydraulic hybrid could get 40 mpg (city)

[Bill USA]

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/driveon/post/2011/02/batteries-not-included-ford-f-150-hydraulic-hybrid-could-get-40-mpg-/1

Gas-electric hybrids use batteries to store energy captured by regenerative brakes, but that's not the only way to recapture energy and use it to increase fuel efficiency. Our friend Mike Levine of Pickuptrucks.com reports that Ford is working with the Center for Compact and Efficient Fluid Power and Folsom Technologies on a hydraulic hybrid F-150 pickup they say could hit 40 mpg in city use.


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Simply put, in a hydraulic hybrid the brakes capture energy otherwise lost as heat and use it to pressurize hydraulic fluid in a container called an accumulator. That stored hydraulic power then is used to supplement the hybrid's gas engine power as needed via two hydraulic pumps incorporated into a continuously variable transmission. A gas-electric hybrid accomplishes the same result with its battery and electric motor.

"We have the potential to reach 40 miles per gallon or higher with hydraulic power," Perry Li, co-deputy director of CCEFP and a mechanical engineering professor, told Levine. "But we feel like we don't give up anything vs. an electric hybrid, and there are no batteries and nothing to recycle."

Importantly for trucks and unlike most electric hybrids, the truck retains most of the gas version's towing capability.

[FLAprogressive]

1. that would be an absolute gamechanger, since trucks are probably the biggest gashogs on the road by

the sheer amount of them that people here buy (whether they need them or not).

[dtexdem]

2. Could change Texas for sure.

Hey, I might even buy a pickup if it got gas mileage like that.

[Tesha]

7. Its highway mileage will be the usual trash, of course.

A hybrid system does virtually nothing to improve
mileage when the vehicle is traveling at an approx-
imately-constant speed; in that situation, it's all
air resistance, tire rolling resistance, and mechan-
ical losses.

Tesha

[Bill USA]

3. Chrysler Experiments with Hydraulic Hybrid Minivans

http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/37230/

The automaker aims to bring a cheap hybrid technology used in some large vehicles to passenger cars.


The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Chrysler Group have partnered to test a hydraulic hybrid system for minivans that could be cheaper than conventional hybrid systems and could save more gasoline. EPA and Chrysler are each spending $2 million (for a total of $4 million) on the project, and they expect to begin road testing next year.

Conventional hybrids save gas in part by using energy from braking to charge a battery. A hydraulic hybrid captures energy by using a hydraulic pump instead of conventional friction brakes to slow the vehicle. The pump forces fluid into a tank, compressing air that can then be used to help propel the vehicle.

Hydraulic systems are bulky and loud, which has limited their use to large vehicles such as garbage trucks. But they're attractive because pumps and air storage tanks are cheap compared to batteries. Also, hydraulic hybrids have the potential for larger fuel economy improvements than battery hybrids because hydraulic systems can store energy very quickly, allowing them to capture more energy from braking. While conventional battery hybrid systems for minivans might improve fuel economy by 25 percent compared to gas-powered cars, hydraulic systems could improve fuel economy by 30 percent to 35 percent under most conditions, says David Haugen, manager of the technology development group at EPA's National Vehicle and Fuel Emissions Laboratory. In city driving, the improvement could be as much as 60 percent. Chris Cowland, Chrysler's director responsible for advanced powertrains, says the 60 percent improvement is "way more significant than any other technology that we know of today."
(more)

[kristopher]

4. This only has real benefit for those doing lots of stop-and-go driving.

If you do a lot of open highway driving it is little more than extra weight.

[FLAprogressive]

5. a lot more trucks are used in "city" settings than people think...

[Gregorian]

6. And even then it's a shit idea.

[Schema Thing]

9. Hardly. It's a fucking great idea. And it's been put to good use..

for several years now in Garbage collection and other heavy trucks.

[Kolesar]

10. Garbage trucks--I had no idea

thanks for the info!

[Gregorian]

11. Maybe I should have qualified my statement.

Compared to electric motors, it's a shit idea.

And I am qualified to say this as a mechanical engineer. I will also modify my statement by saying that in the case of very few vehicles (garbage trucks), it isn't as bad as if it were included in all vehicles. But still, it's an idea that is better kept as theory. I won't go into the details. It's fairly easy to figure out.

[Bill USA]

12. UPS Hydraulic Hybrid truck - expected to achieve 60% to 70% increase in Fuel efficiency (urban use)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=115x312457

[Schema Thing]

8. .