Turbine, or not Turbine

As my brother and I were discussing my last hub “Water for Fuel and Chaos will Ensue”, he brought up the fact that a turbine is more economical than a reciprocating engine. Light bulb! “Are you going to write about it, or shall I?” I asked. He handed me the reins with his blessing. I grovel at his feet.

Volvo toyed with the idea to develop a hybrid vehicle. It is basically an all electric vehicle which can recharge itself with a four-cylinder Flexifuel engine. A reciprocating engine would power a generator recharging batteries and provide power to the entire system as needed. An interesting side note; the electric drive motors are neatly tucked and incorporated into each of the four wheels.

The first half of my last hub “Water for Fuel and Chaos will Ensue” discusses the use of water for fuel and how Stanley Meyer accomplishes this. Volvo incorporates the reciprocating engine with attached generator, this can be replaced by a turbine and generator using the fuel created by Stanley Meyers HHO production system.

A turbine has its drawbacks when used in the same manner as a reciprocating engine. It cannot provide the torque and quick RPM’s required when directly linked to the drive train to accelerate a vehicle as a reciprocating engine can. But in the configuration the hybrid Volvo uses, much less torque and quick power is required to supply electricity. A slow buildup of RPM’s to bring the generator to speed has no affect on the performance of the vehicle. Batteries provide performance power. The generator’s main job is to recharge the batteries.

Initial investment to install a turbine may prove to be a little higher compared to a reciprocating engine. The durability, longevity and low maintenance costs, more than makes up for the higher cost. The drawback of a reciprocating engine is that it requires reconfiguration and adjustment to accept the many different styles of fuel available, and has many moving parts. A turbine has few moving parts and can accept almost any fuel without adjustment. This is where the turbine shows its true strength. If gasoline is not available just use alcohol, if that is not available, HHO (hydrogen oxygen gas) or propane and so on, without having to reconfigure the turbine.

In the capacity as an electric generator, turbine power is an excellent option. Compactness and miniaturization with high power output, is easily achievable. Therefore, the smallest machines like a lawn mower or motorcycle can be adapted to work as well or better then common engine configurations.

Some of the largest vehicles on earth already incorporate hybrid diesel-electric technology. This is a relatively new concept in the marine industry and common in American locomotives. The marine industry has a unique opportunity if they incorporate Stanley Meyers technology. Since water is the fuel source and they are surrounded by it, there would be no need for fuel storage tanks. Ocean going vessels would require the addition of a desalination plant since Stanley Meyer’s invention runs on fresh water.

Replacing massive diesel engines with turbines is cost prohibitive and simply not economical, but converting the diesel engine to Stanley Meyers technology will save millions of dollars on fuel costs over the life of the ship. Incorporating turbine technology in new ships would take about the same effort as installing current technology.

A new inland barge in the Netherlands, the “MS Amulet” has incorporated diesel electric hybrid technology with an average fuel savings over similar ships between 30% to 40%. Western European’s technical know how, precision engineering and willingness to invest in new technology and ideas makes them the high tech leaders. The future development may include HHO for fuel and turbine generators.

Volvo has built 25 fully electric cars, without the recharge concept, which are currently being tested in real time, in real world situations. These cars require a recharge from an outside source which at present takes eight hours. The addition of a turbine generator with Stanley Meyer’s system for recharging would only require filling your tank with water. This would cause the vehicle to be more self reliant. There would no longer be an eight hour wait before you can drive the car. Another option is using an ultra capacitor which can charge batteries in a matter of seconds.

Based on the information of a few days research, turbine generators used to recharge batteries or supply continuous power for electric vehicles has the potential to become a beneficial and lucrative business.