Research Project - Replacing diesel engines... PLEASE HELP

Gas turbines make great engines for helicopters. They are light and have a high power-to-weight ratio.

In a turbine powered truck you don't measure fuel consumption in miles per gallon. You measure it in gallons per mile.

 

Sulfur never helped with fuel economy or the Cetain rating of the fuel it is a mineral, a rock, the refiners just did not want to take it out of the fuel until mandated.

Really John? Has nothing to do with lubricating the upper cylinder either, correct? Ok.... and you're right about refiners, they don't want to take it out..... just didn't think "rocks" would pass through my injector nozzles.

 

yeah what the sulfur actually does is combine with water molecules to form a little bearing friendly thing called sulfuric acid. testing found that without that little acid engines lasted far longer with longer oil change intervals. read that in the SAE engineers magazine 20 years ago. so much for the bulls..t about sulfur lubricity

 

The Abrams Turbine consumes a huge amount of fuel, I think the Military Channel show said 1500# per hour though it is multi fuel capable #2, Kero, JP4, etc.

Gee 1500 # divided by diesel's 7.1 pounds/gal = 212 gal/hour...so If you streach out the chassis to add a home heating oil delivery tank for a fuel tank....

 

The diesel has already been demonstrated inefficiency, but no one has developed a trailer to survive the back blast.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNTan4qAiFg&feature=related"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNTan4qAiFg&feature=related[/ame]

 

But that would definitely make every shipment a HOT LOAD!

 

That's a new method for a tanker yanker to make in-transit heating...

 

To the guy posting about hydrogen engines in big rigs:

I think most drivers are already terrified of big rigs on the road, imagine the panic if they thought that truck next to them might explode at any moment.

Also, why the "water injection won't work"? I've helped people set up water-injection systems on many street and track passenger cars, and they all run cleanly, safely, and efficiently.

I think we should be putting a lot more time into alternative fuels like recycled bio-diesel until a safe and efficient fuel-cell technology comes around. The future, though, is going to be electric. They already do this for trains, where the diesel is basically just a generator. So why don't we see more electric-powered big rigs? Have you seen the torque curves on a strong electric motor? 0-thousands in seconds.

 

By and large per HP turbines have not been more efficient. They have been tolerated in aircraft because of their incredible power to weight ratio. In application where weight is not critical their fuel consumption is horrible.600 HP.cat running 95% load runs about 32US gal per hour turbines typically run 2-3to rimes that. Add in a price of 10xthe as much (guess) and way poor acceleration curve, just not that great a motor vehicle poweplant

 

If turbine power was superior, it would be in use today. You don't just start a turbine and drive away in 10 seconds- but you can still do that in a reciprocating engine.

Turbines have some awesome power. Just like their awesome heat signature. And how can a heavy turbine powered truck compete with a reciprocating engine on fuel consumption? I remember the bradley tanks we had to continuously refuel in Desert Storm. Several times a day. I know a tank doesn't compare to a truck, but the fuel consumption was gallons-per-mile, not MPG's.

I'll stick with my thumping, underpowered, fuel efficient reciprocating engine for now.