Hydraulic Powered Cars

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Sunday, December 18, 2005
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Government helping industry

EPA turns innovator with hydraulic hybrids

Carmakers would get edge in mpg race

Jeff Plungis / Detroit News Washington Bureau

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Daniel Mears / The Detroit News

EPA administrator Steve Johnson, left, views a hydraulic hybrid UPS truck in the agency's Ann Arbor lab. See full image


Daniel Mears / The Detroit News

Steve Johnson from the EPA, left, talks with engineering tech Scott Wilson as he takes part in a test simulating city driving. See full image



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ANN ARBOR-- Deep inside a nondescript warehouse-like building on the edge of town, researchers at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are working on a plan to improve the prospects of the American auto industry.

EPA officials say a technology patented by the agency and dubbed the hydraulic hybrid system could give U.S. manufacturers an edge with increasingly fuel-conscious car consumers.

The system uses hydraulic pressure to recapture energy lost through braking, then releases the pressure during acceleration. The EPA estimates hydraulic hybrids could improve fuel economy up to 55 percent, versus 30 percent to 40 percent for a conventional gas-electric hybrid.

The EPA believes in some ways, hydraulic hybrids will be superior to gasoline-electric hybrids, such as the Toyota Prius and Ford Escape Hybrid. One big advantage: they cost less, meaning consumers will see a more immediate financial payoff.

If the plan to transfer the technology from a test lab to the private sector works, it would be a first for the EPA. Officials say this is the first concrete signal that the agency's research and development efforts will be more focused on commercial applications than basic science.

"The EPA has been seen only as an entity that approves rules and issues standards," said Chris Grundler, director of the EPA's Ann Arbor test lab. "We'd like to think we can be part of the solution as well.

"If we have an idea that comes out through our work, we would be irresponsible to keep it bottled up in the laboratory," Grundler added. "We're not doing any work there that doesn't have a potential for the marketplace."

The EPA's commitment to commercialize research was underscored last month when the head of the agency, Steve Johnson, was given a tour of the Ann Arbor test lab. Reporters were invited to tag along as the administrator was given a first-hand look at how the lab staffers measure emissions and the fuel economy values that end up on new-car window stickers.

A major portion of the tour was devoted to prototypes of vehicles powered by hydraulic hybrid technology, showing off the guts of a delivery truck that will be used by UPS next year, and an earlier prototype of a Ford Expedition SUV.

As Johnson sat behind the wheel of the Expedition, agency officials said the hydraulic hybrid version would get 32 mpg in city driving and 22 mpg on the highway. The conventional gasoline-only Expedition averages 13 mpg in the city and 20 mpg on the highway.

The cost of the hydraulic system -- about $1,000 -- would be paid back in nine months of driving, officials said.

The EPA is working on pilot projects with Ford Motor Co., the U.S. Army, Eaton Corp. and United Parcel Service to get the technology into the real world as quickly as possible.

UPS, for example, expects to use a hydraulic hybrid truck in the spring. Because of the added weight of the tanks used to store pressurized fluid in the system, engineers expect the best application for hydraulic hybrids will be in heavy-duty trucks that start and stop a lot in city driving.

With 88,000 delivery vehicles and $1.4 billion in annual fuel costs, UPS is eager to enhance the fuel economy of its fleet. Its delivery vans now average about 8.5 miles a gallon.

Robert Hall, fleet environmental manager at UPS, said the system operates on a much more basic level than gas-electric hybrids. The less complicated the mechanics, the more likely it is to be durable and reliable, Hall said -- a key criterion for UPS.

"We believed it was something that could work," Hall said.

Other kinds of applications could follow. Another EPA partner, Eaton, will begin fielding a test fleet of 20 hydraulic hybrid garbage trucks in the second half of 2006, said Brad Bohlmann, Eaton's business development manager for hydraulics.

"If you're looking for a lot of power over a short duration, hydraulic hybrids are a good solution," Bohlmann said.

This kind of close government-industry partnership would be a new thing for the auto industry. Environmental experts -- including Grundler -- cannot cite another example where a government test lab has successfully transferred a commercially viable automotive technology.

But such transfers are common elsewhere, including the national laboratories, and in the defense and energy industries.

In the 1990s, the Clinton administration and Detroit automakers teamed up to try to build prototypes of a family sedan that could average 80 miles a gallon using diesel-electric hybrid technology.

Some observers wonder if hydraulic hybrids will really ever transfer to the mass market for cars and trucks.

Ford, the EPA's first commercial partner, thinks there might be some limited applications for parts of the system. Its Mighty Tonka 350 concept truck, unveiled at the North American International Auto Show in 2002, had a "hydraulic launch assist" to boost acceleration.

But because of the added vehicle weight, the hydraulic hybrids tend to get worse fuel economy on the highways -- one of the primary modes of driving for consumers. Ford is in a wait-and-see mode, officials said.

There is some skepticism that EPA engineers will have the business savvy to find technologies that will be commercially viable for automakers. Government engineers are competent and knowledgeable, but they have different training, priorities and mind-sets than the automakers, who all maintain huge and well-funded labs, said John DeCicco, senior policy analyst with Environmental Defense.

"Government should concentrate on fundamental science, long lead-time stuff," DeCicco said. "How that basic knowledge makes its way into products, that's another issue. When you get into the demonstration phase, the government just doesn't have a track record of success."

Gang, This is from the Detroit News, an interesting concept, will it work in a practical sense?
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There is an illustration of this concept, I can't get it post here. Go to the Detroit News Article.
 
I think this is a great idea, this was touched upon about two months ago in STLE's TLT magazine. If I remember correctly they where running an accumulater at around 5k psi with ATF. They figured maximum effeciency would be obtained at 10k but the compressability of the fluid was holding them back I think.
 
I remember seeing on the show "beyond 2000" some years ago, that compressed air systems were being tested on buses in one of the eastern countries.

This idea seems to have similarities in operating principles though through a different medium.

Hope to see more practical and innovative ideas like these from the auto industry.

Thanks for sharing.
 
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