Posted on 06/12/2009 8:36:49 AM PDT by janetjanet998
Langford Performance Engineering (www.lpengines.com), headquartered in Wellingborough England, designed and modified the Ford S-Max seven seat crossover vehicle into a series hybrid plug in vehicle with a C30 under the hood as an electric range extender. Langford reports that the "Whisper Eco-Logic" car gets up to 80 mpg in early stage demonstration testing. "The Ford modified by Langford is an extremely practical solution and one that Langford has been working on for over two years," said Jim Crouse, Capstone's Executive Vice President, Sales and Marketing. "The design characteristics of Capstone's turbine permits ultra low emissions, high fuel economy, multi fuel capability, no coolants or lubricating oil, and little to no maintenance in an automotive application," added Crouse.
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
The centrifugal compressor and the turbine are probably precision casted items, one piece, how they are attached and what materials is a different matter and maybe above our pay-grades :-)....
“I’m nut sure..but those turbines also run new hybrid buses that cities are starting to order for betetr MPG then a normal engine.”
Oh I don’t doubt that a turbine generating electricity to run a car would likely get better mileage. But the question is how much better and at what cost. Additionally, other issues come to thought such as how much more danger in an accident is there when a super fast turbine disintegrates in a collision....
“About a year ago I spoke with a friend who actually worked on such a project that will remain anonymous. In his humble opinion, this was a good technology for buses or larger vehicles but nothing smaller. I trust this gents judgment.”
A small turbo diesel would be a reasonable replacement for a small turbine. The turbo diesel would give similar effiency and less noise. On the other hand, it would be heavier and more complex.
On the other hand, new material may change the viability of micro turbines.
Thanks we can hope, but again I trust my guru....
And how many did they sell? You can build pretty much anything if cost is no object.
So now they can burn more coal to get the electricity to power the vehicles, right?
A series hybrid generator-pac. Their engine of choice at the moment? A 48hp Wankel that is used in a racing go-kart!
I said 2 years ago watch for the return of the Wankel, I was spot on. Again a Omnivorous engine, quiet and smooth, the question is can they get the fuel specifics (BSFC) down to were it is do-able.
The materials are their, expensive as all get up, unless a ceramic breakthrough occurs and if it did, my guess we wouldn't know because it would be used on don't ask what I do for a living stuff for quite sometime....
The reason the guru says they are OK for just trains, planes, and buses is the high cost.
That's okay. If I could get a 40 mpg RV I would take it. Rather than force everyone into a Smart car making the bigger ones more efficient sounds good. I don't see that being bad news.
>> I would buy one, as you describe it. I am frusted that they are not on the market already! <<
One of the main reasons they are not in the market already is that the new technologies are trying to be shoehorned into the middle of the road consumer market and not the sports car market. Where did superchargers and turbos first show up in? High Performance is King and new tech should be High performance tech that then flows down into the consumer market after it has been proven among those rich folks the left so hates. Make a electric car with electric motors that can go 0 to 60 in a few seconds due to max torque to the ground via computer control and the efficiency in the mid level consumer cars will follow. Just like air travel for the middle class was first pioneered by the rich travelers of the 50’s and 60’s. Something similar should be done with the new tech of the electric drive train vehicles.
The left is shooting themselves in the foot again and forcing socialism and government controls upon us because they don’t understand how economics really works.
“Nonsense, where are you getting your information from? Parts count is high, not low: Say 16 blades in the compressor, 24 in the turbine. Each blade in the turbine is very expensive to produce, using high-temperature alloys which are also very hard.”
Have you ever seen an exploded view of a 4 cycle engine and automatic transmission?
I stated that there would be a trade off in increased cost of materials versus decreased amount of material needed.
0 it would be against the law to sell one. I think it had to do with not submitting it for production. 50 were given away for a year to 200 families and the rest were destroyed except a few still running ones at the Chrysler museum.
If you look around the world, I think we will see more European type turbo diesels.
If the battery pack or supercaps are taking care of peak power demands, a turbo diesel small enough to fit in a lawn tractor could power a car that handled like a Corvette.
An automatic transmission has a lot of parts, but why throw that in, it’s apples and watermelons. The turbine will need gearing too.
Oh great, eveyone knows how reliable batteries are. All I need is my big red clown nose. The car looks like a clown car.
Yes, and the reason it never went into production was its high cost.
Shares in green microturbine maker Capstone Turbine (CPST, $1.15, -$0.17, -12.88%) nearly doubled this week on news that U.K. auto engineers have fit its turbines into a modified electric-and-biodiesel Ford S-Max sedan with gas mileage of 80 miles per gallon.
The “clean” microturbine engine component maker, based in Chatsworth, Calif., surged to $1.32 on Thursday after closing the previous day at 73 cents a share. In recent trading Friday, its shares were off about 10% from Thursday’s closing. Over the last 52 weeks, Capstone shares have traded as high as $4.42 and as low as 39 cents.
The Dow Jones Sustainability Index, a leading indicator of environmentally friendly shares, is up by about a third since its early March lows. Capstone isn’t part of the index.
Langford Performance Engineering Ltd., in Wellingborough, England, fit the liquid-fueled microturbine into the modified Ford it calls the “Whisper Eco-Logic.”
Using a turbine about doubles the gas mileage of its combined battery-powered and diesel/biodiesel engine, said Dick Langford, managing director of the auto modifier.
“We wanted to prove that you could make a practical vehicle that is also environmentally friendly,” he said. “This can be used as an everyday car.”
“The design characteristics of Capstone’s turbine permits ultra low emissions, high fuel economy, multi-fuel capability, no coolants or lubricating oil, and little to no maintenance in an automotive application,” Jim Crouse, Capstone executive vice president, said in a prepared release.
Capstone is due to announce its fiscal fourth-quarter and 2009 earnings on June 15.
New York-based Ardour Capital Investments LLC expects a loss of 6 cents a share on quarterly sales of $11.9 million. It rates Capstone a hold. “We expect them to continue approaching gross margin break-even in the fourth quarter,” Ardour senior equity-research associate Meghan Moreland said.
On average, analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect the company to post a loss of 6 cents on revenue of $13.4 million.
-By Brendan Conway, Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-5394
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
Shares in green microturbine maker Capstone Turbine (CPST, $1.15, -$0.17, -12.88%) nearly doubled this week on news that U.K. auto engineers have fit its turbines into a modified electric-and-biodiesel Ford S-Max sedan with gas mileage of 80 miles per gallon.
The “clean” microturbine engine component maker, based in Chatsworth, Calif., surged to $1.32 on Thursday after closing the previous day at 73 cents a share. In recent trading Friday, its shares were off about 10% from Thursday’s closing. Over the last 52 weeks, Capstone shares have traded as high as $4.42 and as low as 39 cents.
The Dow Jones Sustainability Index, a leading indicator of environmentally friendly shares, is up by about a third since its early March lows. Capstone isn’t part of the index.
Langford Performance Engineering Ltd., in Wellingborough, England, fit the liquid-fueled microturbine into the modified Ford it calls the “Whisper Eco-Logic.”
Using a turbine about doubles the gas mileage of its combined battery-powered and diesel/biodiesel engine, said Dick Langford, managing director of the auto modifier.
“We wanted to prove that you could make a practical vehicle that is also environmentally friendly,” he said. “This can be used as an everyday car.”
“The design characteristics of Capstone’s turbine permits ultra low emissions, high fuel economy, multi-fuel capability, no coolants or lubricating oil, and little to no maintenance in an automotive application,” Jim Crouse, Capstone executive vice president, said in a prepared release.
Capstone is due to announce its fiscal fourth-quarter and 2009 earnings on June 15.
New York-based Ardour Capital Investments LLC expects a loss of 6 cents a share on quarterly sales of $11.9 million. It rates Capstone a hold. “We expect them to continue approaching gross margin break-even in the fourth quarter,” Ardour senior equity-research associate Meghan Moreland said.
On average, analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect the company to post a loss of 6 cents on revenue of $13.4 million.
-By Brendan Conway, Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-5394
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
According to the Capstone website, they can run on a variety of fuels
Low or High Pressure Natural Gas
Biogas (landfill, wastewater treatment centers, anaerobic)
Flare gas
Diesel
Propane
Kerosene
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