This article seems to claim that you can mix these two fuels and surpass the second law of thermodynamics.
I’ve noticed stuff like that.. or poor attention to detail all through the article. Another example:
quoted:
It announced the same year that, beginning in 2008, it would convert its gasoline Hummers to run on ethanol; by 2010, it said, Hummers would be biodiesel-compatible.
The military ‘H1’ Hummers are already biodiesel compatible.. all you have to be is ‘diesel’ to get that. The reason why the military Hummers are pokey is because they have to run on all types of fuel, not just diesel. It also affects their efficiency and mileage.
The show chose a ’65 Chevy Impala, and when the conversion was done, he’d doubled its mileage to 25 mpg and increased its pull from 250 to 800 horsepower.
Several people have beat him to this.. most of them diesel tuners.. and they are racing full-sized trucks against sports and performance cars, including Vipers. The Chevy LBZ diesel and Cummings are favorite starting points. The Ford Navistar less so.
Whenever the truck’s juice runs low, the turbine will roar into action for a few seconds, powering a generator with such gusto that it’ll recharge a set of “supercapacitor” batteries in seconds.
Umm, slight problem. “Supercapacitor”s do not hold much current compared to a battery. The higher the current, the more likely you are to heat up any wiring and the greater the resulting resistance in the wiring. Turbines are most efficient when they have been operating continuously and are up to temperature. They don’t do on and off well, nor do they like to change speed (high thermal mass and high rotational inertia).
This is more than a mere American Chopper–style makeover. Goodwin’s experiments point to a radically cleaner and cheaper future for the American car. The numbers are simple: With a $5,000 bolt-on kit he co-engineered–the poor man’s version of a Goodwin conversion–he can immediately transform any diesel vehicle to burn 50% less fuel and produce 80% fewer emissions.
There is a reason why diesel automobiles are hard to buy in California.. they are not legal because of emissions (NOx). You have to buy one from someone who brings the vehicles into California and has held on to the vehicle for at least a year. There is only one diesel passenger car that has made it past California’s auto emissions standards(that I know of), the Volkswagen TDI. Mercedes’ BlueTec may also pass CA passenger car emissions. Yes, emissions from a current diesel are lower than a 1960 Lincoln or probably a 1987 Wagoneer, but not current passenger cars..
Putting a diesel engine in the Hummer, however, required Goodwin to crack GM’s antitheft system, which makes it a pain to swap out the engine….
This is very true.. and annoying to anyone wanting to use these diesel engines in a ‘project’. The engine he is talking about here is the LBZ variant Duramax.
PS: Instead of trying to worry about getting Hydrogen fuel for the diesel combo engine.. use Propane (8 hydrogens to 3 carbons) or Methane (4 hydrogens to 1 carbon). You should get almost the same effect. NOTE: Natural gas is largely Methane. A lot more plentiful and cheaper to get than raw H2 (Hydrogen).
