No doubt the guy’s a mechanical genius and a true believer (which always kind of worries me) in what he’s doing. I have to take stuff like this with a big ol’ grain of salt, however:
“He installed a Duramax in the Hummer and plopped a carbon-fiber tank of supercompressed hydrogen into the bed. The results were impressive: A single tank of hydrogen lasted for 700 miles and cut the diesel consumption in half. It also doubled the horsepower.”
Maybe it’s just a limitation of my understanding of the laws of thermodynamics and such, but I fail to see how adding a little hydrogen gas to the mix can improve diesel engine fuel economy that much. I’d like to see some measurements of his fuel economy done under controlled conditions by a disinterested third party.
He should also be aware that firing up a big turbine engine “for a few seconds” to charge capacitors or batteries is an extremely inefficient way to use it. A much smaller turbine operating at a constant speed and throttle opening would be much more efficient.
Yep, those parts are BS, imo.
I don’t see anything new in the Lincoln whatsoever.
http://www.thisisjustcool.com/cool-people/johnathan-goodwin-the-mpg-rock-star/
“Jonathan Goodwin, the auto conversion phenom who likes to tinker with Hummers and Lincolns and make them behave downright green. His current project is converting the ultimate gas guzzler — 1959 Lincoln Continental Mark IV convertible — into potentially a 100 MPG hybrid.
“It will run a 120 miles just on pure electric power,” he said, adding that the car will contain two dozen lithium ion batteries operating at 426 volts. A small diesel will recharge the batteries power a large generator to provide the juice. He’ll also use regenerative braking to help keep the batteries charged.
In fact, the batteries will be so powerful, they can provide “Vehicle to Grid (VTG)” electricity to power buildings when the car is stationary, claims Goodwin. One wonders about the safety of such a power-laden vehicle. Expense, too. Goodwin says VTG technology was developed in the early 1990s from the development of electric cars”
Maybe it’s just a limitation of my understanding of the laws of thermodynamics and such, but I fail to see how adding a little hydrogen gas to the mix can improve diesel engine fuel economy that much.