![[Valid Atom 1.0]](valid-atom.png "Validate my Atom 1.0 feed")
Heavy-Duty Hybrids - USA - Trucks and buses could significantly cut U.S. fuel consumption
But initial high costs are holding them back
Cambridge,MA,USA -MIT Technology Review, by Kevin Bullis -June 05, 2006: -- At a time when hybrid passenger cars and light trucks are becoming hot consumer items, the numbers of hybrid heavy-duty vehicles, such as utility trucks and buses, are lagging behind severely, despite the availability of the technology and its potential to significantly reduce fuel consumption... Heavy-duty vehicles are an important target for reducing U.S. dependence on foreign oil because, while they make up less than 10 percent of all the vehicles on the roads, they consume about half the fuel. But, says Bill Van Amburg, senior vice president of WestStart, a Pasadena, CA, nonprofit working to increase the adoption of advanced energy technologies in vehicles, the federal government could do much more to help get fuel-saving technology on the roads... An even more immediate impact could come from retrofitting vehicles such as garbage trucks and delivery trucks with hydraulic hybrid systems. While conventional hybrids capture energy from braking and store it in a battery or ultracapacitor, these systems store energy produced by braking by using hydraulic fluid to compress nitrogen gas. The energy in the compressed gas can then be released to power acceleration. Van Amburg says these can be relatively easy and inexpensive to install -- an important consideration for a system to be fitted into an already depreciated vehicle...
posted by Unknown @ 4:49 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home