The whispering wheel [Dutch invention can make vehicles 50 percent more efficient]

Radio Netherlands ^ | 15 december 2003 | by Thijs Westerbeek,

[aculeus]

A new Dutch invention can make cars, busses and other vehicles no less than 50 percent more efficient and thus more environmentally friendly. Better still, the technology is already available; it all comes down to a smart combination of existing systems.

This winter, in the city of Apeldoorn, a city bus will be used to prove that the claims about the new invention are true. These are quite bold. E-traction, the company that developed the bus, boasts fuel savings of up to 60 per cent, with emissions down to only a fraction of the soot and carbon dioxide an ordinary bus would blow out of its tailpipe.

In addition, the test bus requires no adaptation, its drivers need no extra training and there'll be no discomfort for passengers. It will simply run on diesel, just like all the other buses, and it should be just as reliable. One thing however will be very different; the Apeldoorn bus hardly makes a sound, hence its nickname "the whisperer".

In-wheel engine

All this is made possible by an ‘in-wheel' electric engine, in fact nothing more than a normal electric engine turned inside out.

The outer wall of a traditional electric engine is a cylinder lined on the inside with copper wire. If electricity is fed into the copper wire, the current will circle the cylinder on the inside at high speed. Cylinder and wire together are called the ‘stator' (because it doesn't move).

To change the electricity running along the inner wall of the cylinder into movement, another part of the engine comes into play: ‘the rotor'. This is in fact an axle, mounted in the centre of the cylinder, with permanent magnets attached to it. The electrical current in the stator pulls the rotor magnets along and the axle starts to turn.

The wheel works precisely the other way around. The fixed part of the engine - the stator - is now on the inside. The wire is wrapped around it.

The moving part of the engine – the rotor - is no longer an axle fitted with magnets but a ring running on the outside of the stator.

The magnets are fixed on the inside of this ring. If power is fed into the engine the magnets will – as before - follow the current, but now it's the ring on the outside, which will turn.

Eureka

And that's what makes ‘the whisperer´revolutionary; a ring functioning as a wheel. By just putting a tire on it you can drive a bus, a car, anything with it. Since the wheel is in fact the engine, no axles or any other friction-producing and therefore energy-wasting mechanical parts are needed.

Even the transmission is unnecessary; if you want to go faster you just run more electricity through the engine. And it works really well while braking, when the in-wheel engine works as a generator, produces electricity to charge the batteries.

Pack of Batteries

The power to drive the Apeldoorn bus is stored in a big battery pack that sits in a steel drawer under the bus. Changing the batteries every time they're drained would be impractical, as would be taking the bus out of service for recharging them for hours on end. Instead, a small diesel-powered generator built into what used to be the bus's engine bay continuously charges the whole battery pack.

Since in-wheel engines are so highly efficient, the generator's diesel engine can be very small, about the size of the compact city car's engine. Because charging the batteries is all it needs to do, the tiny engine consumes very little fuel and can run continuously at a speed of 1700 revs per minute, the most efficient rev count.

Clean and quiet

Passengers will find it more important that the bus is quiet and clean. No more roaring buses pulling away from the station in a cloud of diesel fumes. When the whisperer pulls away (and whenever it drives for that matter), the power comes from the batteries, not the diesel engine which simply keeps on purring quietly.

Furthermore, the constant rev count makes the catalyser much more effective, and the small size of the engine makes it possible to completely fill the rest of the engine bay with sound proofing. Being 90 percent quieter than other buses, the ‘whisperer' really deserves its name.

Testing period

In the coming six months the bus has to prove itself in everyday practice. Come summer, the city of Apeldoorn is set to decide whether to use whisperers on a larger scale in public transport. Dr Arjan Heinen, inventor of the whisperer and director of E-traction, radiates confidence: "This is a practical solution for present-day public transport. Every bus driver can get behind the wheel and do his job as before, only now it's quiet, clean and energy-efficient."

The future of the in-wheel electric engine seems bright. At the recent Tokyo Motor Show, it was the engine of choice in many of the futuristic hydrogen-powered concept cars.

© 2003

[Fee]

Most hybrid cars that may be available in a short time will be small engine and lead acid battery hybrid systems. The small engine turns an alternator that keeps the large bank of batteries under charge. The batteries drive the electric motors which in turn moves the wheels of the vehicle. The engines run on diesel or gasoline, and emitt less pollution because of its size, the batteries are rechargeable and lead acid battery companies have set up recycling process to recover the lead electrodes. Result is a quieter and less polluting vehicle. Challenge is the cost of setting up the infrastructure to change, store spent and stockpile new batteries for the drivers. There are logistical and infrastructure issues that must be resolved. Gasoline stations have no problems with neighbors and do not take up much space nor considered a severe eyesore. A center that stockpiles new batteries and takes in old spent batteries will need alot of real estate and can be an eyesore. Ironicly the esthetic and environmental laws set up to protect the environment may be used to prevent this environmentally friendly technology from being set up for future drivers.

[Doc On The Bay]

HO!!---WHAT FUN!!

Doc

[Capriole]

Not an idiot or the product of an American public school. Did you notice his name? He is DUTCH. This isn't his native language. I think the thing flows pretty smoothly for the work of a non-native English speaker.

[Capitalist Eric]

Actually, according to Websters definitions, either term could be used interchangeably.

Well, Websters doesn't get into the technical aspects of many things...

An engine converts chemical energy into mechanical energy, while a motor converts electrical (or magenetic) energy into mechanical energy...
And for the record, a generator converts mechanical energy into electrical or chemical energy (the latter is relatively rare, as a percentage of generator applications).

Be well.

[Eala]

It was not clear to me whether this was an original article or translated. I assumed the latter.

[templar]

What about the fish carburetor the book is about? Mike Brown was producing those a number of years ago, but I hear he sold it off or just quit making them. He did claim some pretty interesting results, and I doubt he would mislead anyone.

[js1138]

I imagine the first big American city pothole would prove rather expensive. Not to mention fixing a flat.

I'm surprised that the hybrid cars need battery replacement every year. If I understand the priving, that works out to about $100 per month. That's as much as I spend for gas for my guzzler, just commuting to work.

[slimer]

The Whispering Wheel

[Old Professer]

I see nothing new here at all; it is not a novel concept to have the permanent magnet embedded on the outer ring (rotor); the problem of course comes from bearing loads and sprung weight.

[slowhandluke]

1. I cant believe such a motor hasn't been around for years

The idea has been around. I remember looking at this in a Popular Science article sometime in the mid-60's for a high-school science report.

[MarkL]

I've often wondered if the "myth" of the 100 MPG carb, and using water as fuel, don't actually have their basis in fact, as do many other myths...

Way back when, when I had a 71 Pontiac Formula 400, I came upon a set of RAM AIR IV heads from an earlier model. In 1971, due to the fear of government regulations, GM dropped the compression ratios in their engines substantially. Bolting on those heads raised it way back up. As I recall, I was having a serious problem with detonation, as getting decent LEADED fuel back then was tough. I was using an after market octane booster, but it was pretty expensive, and inconvenient to use.

I called one of the premier Pontiac shops at the time (Nunzio's in Brooklyn, NY, I think... It's been 20 years!), and he mentioned something that was getting a bit of popularity... Water injection. The idea was that you could thin out the mixture somewhat, and really increase the ignition advance. The water injection would cool the mixture, making it more dense, allowing you to run it leaner. It would also resist detonation due to the cooling effect. It's been far too long to say exactly what settings I used, but I seem to recall that with the factory standard ignition advance, I was having serious detonation problems. But with the addition of water injection, I was able to increase the ignition timing by 6 or 8 degrees IIRC. It increased power (I didn't change my jetting, so I guess I wound up running a net richer mixture) and mileage by nearly 20 percent. Granted, in this case, that was about 4MPG. And the car was already pretty darned powerful. I never ran it on a dyno, but it did feel more powerful, strictly by seat of the pants measurements.

Maybe this is where the myth of high mileage carbs that use water comes from.

Mark

[Psycho_Bunny]

1700 RPMs isn't low for a diesel, they produce a lot of torque at low RPMs.

[PatrickHenry]

Have you guys heard of this? Is it worth a general ping?

[Old Professer]

There aren't very many mechanics on this thread.

[John Valentine]

Are you sure that this distinction between "motor" and "engine" exists in Dutch? It may be that it is only the translator that is an "idiot".

[RaceBannon]

Since wheels on the outside of the turn rotate faster than those on theinside, this would be an issue

Sounds like an induction motor of sorts, running the wheel, the flux of the stator causes electron flow in the windings of the rotor, which simulates a rotating electric field, causing initial rotation, but once the rotor starts turning, the induction motor has to become a shunt motor or something!

Could happen, it is done in washing machine motors, diode start, then allowing the rotation to generate the field to create a rotating field.

But those batteries do not stay charged forever, nor can they be recharged forever, some envromentalblist will complain how the dumps are now filled with lead plates and electrolyte!

[Banjoguy]

In all likelyhood, the motors are DC. If the motor is a DC motor, to change the direction of rotation, one simply reverses the current flow through the windings. To change the speed, one changes the line voltage.

Changing the speed and direction of AC motors is a complicated proposition, e.g. the frequency of the ac voltage determines speed, and a reverse voltage phase shift is sometimes required to get the motor going in the opposite direction.

[aculeus]

BTW, the idiot who wrote this is obviously an idiot... There are no electric "engines." Only electric "motors." ;)

He's anything but an idiot. For one thing he's writing in his second (third?) language. Try writing a similar article ... in Dutch.

[dhs12345]

Maybe "motor" got lost in the Dutch to English translation.

[blam]

This is the same way the old diesel-electric submarines worked.