Dean Kamen Combines Stirling Engine With Electric Car

Colin Smith writes "Dean Kamen, (inventor of the Segway) has combined a Stirling engine with a battery-powered electric vehicle based on the Ford Think to provide a fully decoupled electric hybrid car which can run on any fuel which can provide enough heat to run the Stirling generator. Think are also producing a purely battery 'Think City' car which is capable of 62mph and with a range of 126miles." Some stats on the Ford Think: Top speed, 55mph; 0-30, 6.5 seconds; Range, 60 miles on battery.

Comments

Couple of things bother me...

[Sooner Boomer]

...in the article. First is "The prototype vehicle, a zippy two-seat hatchback...can go 60 miles on a single charge": second, "It can use any fuel, from biodiesel to natural gas; it burns clean".

On the first comment, 60 miles for some is less than their daily commute to work. And this is without any side trips to pick up kids, groceries, dry cleaning, etc. I realize that the big "Woo-Hoo" of this project is the back-up Sterling engine, but its main selling point is the no-emissions electric power.

Second is the comment about "burns clean". I takes a *tremendous* amount of design work to get an internal combustion engine to "burn clean" using a single fuel; making it a "universal fuel capable" and still "burn clean" will be impossible. This appears to be an exterior combustion engine (no spark plug, pistons, etc) - for lack of a better word - and will increase the difficulty of clean burning beyond the impossible to mearly fantasy.

This is an interesting idea. It will revolutionize transportation the same way that the Segway did.