Hi Keith,
> Yes, the list archives does. :-)
>
> First though, there are quite a lot of diesel hybrids, in things like
>
> buses, not cars. And of course trains.
<snip>
Thanks for your reply - it's now put me much more in the picture.
Now I thought I was so cynical about this world that I wouldn't fail to
spot the obvious political motives for decisions that don't seem to
make much sense - and I totally failed to spot this one, I had presumed
there was some technological reason for it not being much more common.
Perhaps that's why I am a technologist rather than a politician :-)
Having said that, most of the articles you point to do seem to be
largely based on US political decisions, and I don't think I had ever
really assumed that Diesel hybrids would ever come out of the US -
purely because Diesel fuel is not commonly used there in private cars.
Diesel engines are very common here in Europe, and a quick glance at
the technical data for new Diesel engines shows them to be a lot more
efficient even than my 1996 engine - there's a lot of exciting stuff
going on in Diesel engine technology at the moment (and biodiesel/SVO
use is just a part of this). I suspect these improvements haven't run
out of steam yet either, and over the next 10 years we will see further
refinements.
Given this, and the fact that petrol-based hybrid technology is
reaching a good level of maturity, it seems to me that to produce a
Diesel hybrid should be almost trivially easy to do - there is no
technology involved that hasn't reached a high level of maturity when
used in a different configuration. And I don't see there being a
marketing barrier either, at least in the UK. Running cost is a very
important consideration when choosing a car, and I would have thought
people who choose a Toyota Prius or Honda Insight (as far as I know the
only commercially available hybrids marketed in the UK at the moment)
would prefer to decrease their running costs even further, given the
option.
I had not considered hybrid use in buses or trains, but I am reminded
of one electric bus project in Camden, London (if I remember
correctly). These are purely driven by electricity, and the batteries
are topped up every time the bus reaches the depot. This isn't long
enough to fully recharge them, but as buses run a fixed route it is
easy to predict energy use reasonably accurately and fit batteries
sufficient to last the day with top up charging on a cycle that is
dictated by the timetable. So far so good. However there was one
crucial detail that was overlooked - namely that not all the heat
'wasted' by an internal combustion engine is actually wasted, as it is
used to heat the interior of the bus in winter. Highly efficient
electric motors of course do not generate enough 'waste' heat. The
solution? Diesel-powered heaters were fitted for the winter months!
Regards,
Donald
=====
--
43 - slightly more than the answer to life, the universe and everything.
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