BOWLING GREEN, O.—What may be the future of commercial bus transportation is being tested this summer at Bowling Green State University. The BGSU Shuttle Service is using a prototype hybrid bus to carry passengers on its main route and, more specifically, between the Visitor Information Center and Founders Hall, on opposite ends of campus. The bus is equipped with patented Hybrid Booster Drive (HBD) technology, a proprietary diesel/electric propulsion system developed by the Electric Vehicle Institute (EVI) in BGSU’s College of Technology. http://www.bgsu.edu/offices/mc/news/2005/news11475.html
All I can say is hooray for my university! I will try to get some pictures of this bus as the weather improves over the next couple of days. Also some other resources: BGSU Electric Vehicle Institute: http://www.bgsuevi.com Part of Effort to Develop Northwest Ohio as a National Leader in the Development of Alternative Energy Technologies http://www.kaptur.house.gov/PressRelease.aspx?NewsID=1312
i cant help but say that the article has nothing to say. it provides no information. how does it achieve the 30% increase in mileage? what is the propulsion method?? How big is the battery IF it has battery storage technology... granted there are a few here that bought a Prius for the green effect, but most of us are wannaby techies. the article is a consumer spin article. we need details to be interested.
ok, the 2nd link you provided is MUCH more interesting and it paints a completely different picture than i imagined. and the concept does sound to have a great niche application. the charge capacitors operation is very interesting and i wish they talked more about the weight to charge ratio comparing something beside lead acid batteries
The counts of people who have read a post means almost nothing. There are tons of lurkers here; you don't even need to be registered at PC to read all the posts. [I consider this a good thing, because I can point random people at the plethora of useful articles.] . You might have beneficially pointed people here at the whitepapers directory, which actually has technical content. What are the patent numbers in question, too? . Your best-case ultracap energy storage seems to be less than 300 Wh, about the same as a Prius delivers from 60% nominal down to 40% SOC. I guess this is just designed to help the diesel out, as opposed to push the bus any appreciable distance? . _H*
well you see the part where ultracaps have greater power but "5 to 10 times" less storage than lead acid batteries of the same weight. to me, why are we comparing lead acid?? stooopid. either ultracaps are heavy or have no storage to speak of
Well I will admit that as someone majoring In Middle Childhood Education (Language Arts and Social Studies specifically) lots of technical details are not exactly my area of expertise... While I have gone through the 'white papers' as they are listed on the EVI site, I honestly do not understand a lot of the scientific stuff. I understand the basic premise of the technology, I posted the article to the press release and then the link to the EVI site to allow people to find the information that they wanted (which is easy to find and the people here are remarkably resourceful). However, I am also aware that postiong something that is overly technical in nature may appeal more to some people, however, it would have less appeal to a wider audience that may have a passing or novice interest in Hybrid technologies (Not all of us are electrical engineers, chemists, or physicists working for NASA) As has been noted, many of the people who view this site are not registered members, and likely not members of the scientific community. Many people who view this site each day are just ordinary average Joes and soccer moms who care about energy efficeincy and helping the environment. I thought I would share what has been happening at my university and my little corner of the world to forward alternative energy technologies, as a lot is happening here with hybrid vechicles, wind, solar, hydro, and waste gasses power systems as well. ::Sigh:: Ok, time to be positive again... So, in summary, while there is an excellent wealth of technical information available at priuschat.com and on the fourms, it is also important to keep this site user friendly and accessable to the general public so that prius chat can continue to be a resource to everyone to promote the benifits and advantages of the Prius, as well as Hybrid and alternative energy technologies without alienating the everyday consumer who may be interested in investing their hard earned money in such technologies.
That's why the prius is such a howling success -- the average joes and soccer moms can get in and "just drive it", without knowing how all the ECUs talk to each other over the CANbus or the PSD ratios or the usable Wh capacity of the battery ... but for a lot of them, the concept draws them in, gets them more interested, and then they might start getting curious about how this stuff works. The average joe *is* going to have to undergo a little thinking and behavior-mod to LIVE in an energy-frugal, environmentally conscious manner ... which doesn't necessarily take deep specific tech knowledge, but it does take a *certain* level of understanding about why we need to do things differently and ask a few different questions before plunking down the dough on just about anything. If Joe is going to start helping vote with his wallet, he should be an informed voter. . So basic questions like "how far does the bus go on just its electric storage" are arguably valid, because the answer might lead to other realizations about the merits of a given technology. . _H*
