Flywheel Hybrid Technology?
Flywheel Hybrid Technology?
Here’s something new, well new to me anyway, “Flywheel Hybrid Technology”. We all know that flywheels store energy, and have been an integral part of the conventional internal combustion engine since day one.
As the term “Flywheel Hybrid Technology” implies, this is a method of storing energy in a flywheel, and releasing that energy in short bursts.
In the video below, the idea is mooted to use “Flywheel Technology”, mated to an internal combustion engine, to give bursts of power when needed, so making the engine more efficient, and therefore using less of our precious, dwindling supply of fossil fuel. So, here we have the stumbling block, the good old smoky Joe, which, no matter how efficient, will still use that precious black gold, which will in the not so very distant future be rarer than rocking horse poo. So it doesn’t matter how advanced flywheel technology becomes, it won’t stop the certain decline of the smelly old polluting gas guzzler, or the use of fossil fuels.
The same could be said for the Gas/Electric Hybrid, which is a view I hold for any Hybrid, where any kind of natural resource burning is in the equation, which really trashes all current Hybrids.
The guy from Torotrak, in the video, rubbishes the standard Gas/Electric Hybrid, and he’s right to do so. Take the heavy batteries and other electrical gubbins out of the Prius, and the 1600cc engine would probably return not so different mpg figures as it does in its Hybrid guise.
So, if “Flywheel Technology” can be so advantageous when mated to a conventional internal combustion set up, then why should it not be of the same advantage when mated to a pure electric motor set up? Why not mate the best of both the electric and the mechanical worlds, to give the best of both worlds?
Whether the suck squeeze bang blow, (Induction, compression, power, exhaust), brigade like it or not, the electric motor, or variations of such, is the motive power of the near future. So if the two disciplines, mechanical and electrical, can work together without resorting to setting fire to anything, then that will truly be a match made in heaven.
So, watch the video, and see if you can fathom out the workings of this magical “Flywheel Technology”. The chap from Torotrak wasn’t very forthcoming, though his model is very technical and baffling.
