[Dean Kamen]’s company, the people behind the Segway, have created a hybrid car that uses a Stirling engine instead of a standard internal combustion engine. Stirling engines are closed cycle, meaning heat is applied to the outside of the cylinder walls. They are generally more efficient than standard car engines, but haven’t been used much outside of industrial applications. We suspect that the drivetrain arrangement is similar to the Chevy Volt where the engine is used to charge batteries which are in turn driving an electric motor. This is different from modern hybrids that can have either electric motor or gas engine driving the wheels. The article is unfortunately full of classic [Kamen] hyperbole and minimal detail. He calls the Stirling engine “an insurance policy” for the electric car since it can recharge the battery. That’s right, folks. If you run out of juice, you can put gas in the car. I doubt many Prius owners will fall out of their chair over that. Being a Stirling engine, we’d be more impressed if you could charge the thing by rubbing warm toast on it.
It would be cool if it used the waste heat of the electric motor to recharge the battery. But any fuel could be used as a heat source including a big solar mirror.
But the point is to use fuel for heat in the car so as to not waste the power in the battery for heating and defrosting - NH is a rather cold state unlike CA and it also can recharge the Lithium battery.
It would be cool if it used the waste heat of the electric motor to recharge the battery. But any fuel could be used as a heat source including a big solar mirror.
If you listen real closely you can hear the ecomodders cringe. :-)
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