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Ultracapacitor Bus Recharges At Each Stop

Posted by kdawson on from the fill-er-up-with-electrons dept.

TechReviewAl writes "A US company and its Chinese partner are piloting a bus powered by ultracapacitors in Washington DC. Ultracapacitors lack the capacity of regular batteries but are considerably cheaper and can be recharge completely in under a minute. Sinautec Automobile Technologies, based in Arlington, VA, and its Chinese partner, Shanghai Aowei Technology Development Company, have spent the past three years demonstrating the approach with 17 municipal buses on the outskirts of Shanghai. The executive director of Sinautec touts the energy efficiency of this approach: 'Even if you use the dirtiest coal plant on the planet [to charge an ultracapacitor], it generates a third of the carbon dioxide of diesel.'"

10 of 419 comments (clear)

  1. Until... by cosm · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Exxon buys them out, or lobbies against the tech and throws campaign money to the folks that make the municipal decisions, as big oil does with everything else progressive that possibly endangers their energy monopoly.

    --
    'We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress.' RPF
  2. Isn't this the same as a trolley? by srothroc · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Aren't these, in the end, pretty much the same as a trolley? The bus is really a mini-bus that holds 11 people. It uses 40% as much electricity as a trolley. If you expanded the bus to hold as many people as a trolley can, wouldn't the increase in size and weight (both bus weight and passenger weight) make it use more energy?

    If so, then what's the difference between this and, say, a mini-trolley? I mean, hell, why not ultracapacitor golf carts or something?

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    http://www.tenjou.net/
    1. Re:Isn't this the same as a trolley? by quanticle · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The advantage with a bus is that its much easier to add new stops and routes. You only have to build up the charging station, whereas with a trolley, one has to tear up the road, put in tracks, and build stations.

      --
      We all know what to do, but we don't know how to get re-elected once we have done it
    2. Re:Isn't this the same as a trolley? by quanticle · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Well, this still has the issue of having to build (electricity) lines over the entire route. Here, you can localize the charging to only the bus stops, which reduces the infrastructure costs of getting the system going.

      --
      We all know what to do, but we don't know how to get re-elected once we have done it
    3. Re:Isn't this the same as a trolley? by Trepidity · · Score: 3, Insightful

      That's both an advantage and a disadvantage, though. It's not only easier to add stops and routes, but to change or remove them. That makes the value of the transit to property owners considerably less--- someone might put up a condo building next to a metro station, confident that the station will be there for decades, but nobody is going to bank on a bus line.

      --
      10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
  3. been saying this for years by timmarhy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    people said i was crazy when i talked about this a few years ago. the best advatage of UC's is they don't melt when you discharge a huge current as batteries do, hello electric sports cars that kick the shit out of petrol engines.

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  4. Re:Title goes here by amRadioHed · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Why would you be dead at a red light? If you're not moving then you're motors are drawing power.

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    We hope your rules and wisdom choke you / Now we are one in everlasting peace
  5. Re:burning cars by mmontour · · Score: 3, Insightful

    For this very reason I hate mandatory seatbelt laws, if there's the possibility someone will burn to death they should have the choice as to whether or not they will wear a seatbelt.

    If you don't wear a seatbelt, you may suffer additional injuries that prevent you from escaping a burning car. You will also be worse off in any accident that does not involve a car fire. A much better solution is to wear your damn seatbelt and carry one of these in the car.

  6. Re:No, thanks by 4D6963 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ? Call me old fashioned (and it won't be the first time) but I'll .

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    You just got troll'd!
  7. Re:energy density by fnj · · Score: 4, Insightful

    OK, now state the energy-to-mass and energy-to-volume figures of the gasoline PLUS gas tank versus that of the hydrogen PLUS storage matrix. Fact is, petroleum or synfuel equivalent is the most volume-efficient storage mechanism for hydrogen yet devised - not even counting the contribution of the carbon content. One liter of gasoline contains a higher mass of hydrogen than one liter of liquid hydrogen.

    State of the art hydrogen storage systems have a container mass 10x the mass of the contained hydrogen, versus around 0.1x for gasoline tanks. Compressing or liquefying the hydrogen saps a huge amount of the theoretical energy efficiency of the system.

    When you add container weight, petroleum is the most MASS-efficient storage mechanism for hydrogen.