Where Are They Now?

by Dean Sigler on 08/29/2010

Two automotive teams on epic journeys we’ve reported on previously are making great progress toward their goals.

The Vislab Intercontinental Autonomous Challenge is in Samara, Russia, a few hundred miles north of the Kazakhstan border.  An ostensibly driverless tour from Parma, Italy to Shanghai, China is planned to arrive at its destination on October 10, 2010, 21 days before the end of the World Expo being held there.  On the way, two pairs of vehicles are testing Vislab’s goal “to move goods between two continents with non-polluting vehicles powered by green energy and with virtually no human intervention.”

As noted in this blog, the Italian team is running two pairs of Piaggio vans on a route emulating but not duplicating Marco Polo’s 13th century trek to China and back.  Polo spent much of the first part of the voyage on a ship and docked near Iraq’s western borders before setting off inland.  After 24 years on the road, he returned to Italy to be imprisoned because his home city of Venice was at war with Genoa, and Genoa was winning.  He used the time of his imprisonment to write the journal of his adventures. National Geographic has an excellent multimedia presentation on Polo’s trip.

The video provides a sample of what Vislab is attempting with this challenge, and includes links to company videos on self-driving automobiles and other developments.

The current drive is an attempt to test the limits of self-navigating and operating trucks and in its prototype form is making good time, despite several equipment and logistics issues.

The sportier run fields an electric supercar which looks more like a LeMans racer than a serious road car.  Looks being truly deceiving in this case, the Imperial College Racing Green Endurance team was in Honduras on August 25, day 58 of the journey along the Pan-American Highway.  Considering they started in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska nearly two months ago, they too are making excellent time on their way to Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world. 

After a relatively short day's run from Guatemala, RGE team is greeted in San Salvador on day 55

The RGE team has been experiencing several days’ travel in excess of 250 miles, all on Thunder Sky battery power, and all without recharging during each day’s travel.  Group members maintain an excellent log of the trip, although the exhausting nature of the tour causes its writing to lag actual progress by a few days.

Both groups are to be congratulated on their intrepid sense of adventure and their pioneering explorations into future technology.

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Buckeyes Bullet to Record

by Dean Sigler on 08/28/2010

Engineering and design students with Ohio State University’s Center for Automotive Research heated the Bonneville Salt Flats August 23, 2010 with a speed record for electric vehicles on the famed white wasteland – 307.66 miles per hour for the average of two one-mile runs.  The Buckeye Bullet BBV2.5 flew through the flying mile at 320 mph under the experienced hand of Roger Schroer, a professional race driver who has worked with the University team for the last six years. 

The Buckeyes await certification of their record by the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile, the worldwide motor sports governing body.

BB2.5 prepares for first run

The team comprises graduate and undergraduate students in multiple engineering disciplines.  Center Director Giorgio Rizzoni acts as team advisor, undergraduate David Cooke is team leader, graduate mechanical engineer Gary Bork heads up the grads, Rob Ewing is mechanical leader, and graduate electrical engineer R. J. Kromer is the electrical leader.

Graphic design major Kelly Hartnett keeps the world updated on team activities through her blog, explaining, “Our last attempt yesterday was all set to be the best run yet, everything was looking great, but midway through the first mile, we busted our clutch.  Too much torque from our motor ripped apart the half inch steel teeth that keep the motor connected to the gearbox. 

“After a late night of trying to disassemble the motor and reinstall another type of clutch, we decided to call it: our last record will stay the best for the VBB2.5.”

Ohio State has an impressive resume, with last year’s achievement of highest speed achieved by a fuel cell-powered automobile, 302.877 mph, and a 2004 uncertified battery powered speed of 314.9 mph in Buckeye Bullet 1.

 The Center for Automotive Research notes, “The Bullet 2.5 uses the same body and chassis of the hydrogen fuel cell powered Buckeye Bullet 2, and nearly the same electric traction system, but it is powered by a 600+ kW A123 Systems lithium-ion battery pack that was designed, tested and assembled by the Bullet team and A123 Systems. The team is supported by French electric vehicle manufacturer Venturi Automobiles, which lends its 10-year expertise in electric vehicles and significant sponsorship funding to the students.”

They are backed, too, by the Transportation Research Center, Inc., a design,  research and testing facility.

Eva Hakansson, speaker at the fourth annual Electric Aircraft Symposium, is planning an assault on this record with a two-wheeler capable of 400 mph.  Her discussion on building 500 hp battery packs for Killacycle, her husband Bill Dube’s record-holding drag bike, was educational and sobering for the extreme care that must be exercised in dealing with battery packs of this power.  We wish the Buckeyes and Eva ongoing good luck in their endeavors.

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Green Flight Challenge: Elektra One Progress

by Dean Sigler on 08/22/2010

Dipl. Ing. Calin Gologan, President of PC-Aero, showed the completed version of Elektra One, a Green Flight Challenge contender, at Friedrichshafen’s Expo for Sustainable Mobility in June.

Calin Gologan with Elektra One

Over the last two years, PC-Aero has designed a series of light, electric-powered aircraft.  As Gologan explains, “Using the existent technology it is possible to fly with a one- and a two-seat aircraft without CO2-emission for more than 3 hours, without noise and for lower operation costs in comparison with classic aircrafts. This is the future of leisure aviation as a bridge to the next step: electric transportation.”

Elektra One shines on the Avenue of Electric Mobility

Just two months after its debut at Aero 2010, Elektra One graced the halls again as part of “The Electric Avenue”.  Surrounded by electric vehicles of every description, the single seater showed off its nicely faired landing gear, and hinted at the powerplant under its smooth cowling – an HPD 13.5 kilowatt (18.4 horsepower) motor normally associated with hang gliders and powered parachutes.  PC-Aero notes 21 hp in its specifications, indicating that the team will drive the motor a bit harder for short periods (but within motor specifications) to achieve takeoff run and climb goals for the Green Flight Challenge.

Team PC-Aero, led by former NASA test pilot Einar Enevoldson, will compete with Elektra One for the $1.5 million prize in the NASA/CAFE Green Flight Challenge next July at Charles M. Schulz Memorial Airport in Santa Rosa, California.  Gologan calculates that if 33.7-kilowatt hours (kWh) equal the energy in one gallon of avgas, a single seat aircraft would have to achieve the equivalent of less than half a gallon per hour at 100 miles per hour to even be in the contest.

According to Gologan, “Elektra One needs only about 6.5 kW/h at 100 mph.  This will be equivalent [to] about 500 passenger miles per gallon…. The reason for the much better electric version performance is the electric engine efficiency (about 95 percent) which is much higher than the efficiency of a normal combustion engine.”  That, coupled with the airplane’s clean lines and light weight, could make it a formidable GFC competitor.

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Ultralight and Electric – The Red Tail Hawk

by Dean Sigler on 08/22/2010

Many of us dream of retiring and pursuing the dreams that sustained us during our careers.  One man has done that with the kind of work ethic that makes retirement highly productive.  He maintains two web sites; a Yahoo group dedicated to his latest homebuilt electric sailplane, and a more inclusive overview of his many aeronautical projects.

Jerry Booker took early retirement from the architectural technology profession, and having grown up on a farm, “enjoyed ‘green’ living, with a lot of physical activity, and now [lives] in the farm country in central Illinois.”

Designing and building even a simple airplane is a task that requires the willingness to learn and explore new ideas, and if that craft includes an electric powerplant, a willingness to experiment at a fairly high level.  Jerry reports, “I always had an interest in research, design, and development, and am mostly self-educated from reading and trying things.

“In addition to Alex Strojnik, I got a lot from the late Stan Hall’s writings, and from the late Bob ‘Veedubber’ Hoover  whose writings inspired me to write about my projects, to try to pass on some knowledge and experience.”

He does not seek publicity for himself or his work, “As there is no intention of my efforts leading to a business endeavor on my part. I just want to show there is a way that a home-builder can put together a Part 103-compliant, electric powered self-launching, sailplane, and then maybe somehow help others who have a serious intent in doing something similar.”

The clean and slender lines of the Red Tail Hawk

Booker’s Red Tail Hawk is a slender ultralight motorglider, a reflection of the writings of the late Dr. Strojnik.  Jerry decided to power it with Randall Fishman’s motor package, not wanting to reinvent that wheel, and finding the right combination of weight and power for his purposes.  He uses model airplane battery packs and model aircraft and bicycle technology to monitor flight parameters and motor operation.  He was kind enough to respond to questions regarding his sailplane.
CAFE: Were you working with EagleTree for monitoring motor parameters?

JB: I bought an EagleTree Glide unit to use on my RC sailplanes, which can work as a remote variometer and as a data logger, and I think it might be good for gathering some very useful data when installed on the RTH. I have it set up for the RTH to log elapsed time, airspeed, and altitude, but haven’t tried it yet. The altitude is supposed to be accurate to one foot. That info should provide enough data to calculate the gliding performance of the RTH.

However the EagleTree motor monitoring does not go up to the voltage I am running at on the RTH so it won’t be hooked up to any of that.  I have a Cycle Analyst, for electric bicycles, to monitor the battery output, motor rpm, etc.

CAFE: There is much of the model airplane world that comes close to a range just right for ultralight electric sailplanes.

JB: I agree. I’m using RC battery packs to power the RTH. That idea came from Mark Beierle of Earthstar Aircraft, who has been flying with them for a while. And I have several RC items that I use for the battery charging process.

CAFE: You also went from a retractable motor mount to a fixed on with a revised turtle deck. Comments on why?

JB: I never did have the retractable motor actually rigged up, but was going in that direction. But I decided it was too complicated, maybe too unreliable, and probably too heavy, so went with the taller turtle deck to fair in the motor. I could still give it a try sometime after I get more experience flying the RTH.

RTH's original retractable motor mount with projected linkages

RTH's revised, fixed motor mount with raised turtledeck

CAFE: You’re still using the Randall Fishman motor, but hint at going to Yuneec. What do you see as the advantages of making that change?

JB: The only thing that attracted me to the Yuneec package was the lighter weight of it all. I don’t know about the cost or the reliability of it. I’m satisfied with Randall’s proven ElectraFlyer package and will stick with that for now. And he has a new lighter motor as standard now too.

CAFE: Could you discuss the issues you found in doing it yourself in installing the motor and operating it so far?

JB: The biggest issue in buying a proven, complete power package is that it saved me probably a couple of years of “trial and error” trying to come up with my own combination that worked and was reliable. Probably saved me money too, because the “error” part of the trial and error method can get very expensive when dealing with this kind of stuff.

Operating the electric power system is a dream, compared to tying to fly the RTH with a small single cylinder 2-stroke engine, which tried to shake the poor thing to pieces. Now I just get in, all is quiet as I go through my checklist. When ready, open the “throttle”, which starts the motor spinning, the propeller unfolds, and away I go.

Charging the battery pack is still a big issue though. I still need to monitor it closely, but I’m quite sure that will improve shortly as new chargers and balancers for these big RC-based battery packs come along, several are being developed by some folks on the Endless Sphere e-bike forum.

RTH battery box. Note use of Monnett Moni spars. Jerry is designing a new, lighter spar and wing.

Jerry Booker’s other projects include the Blue Tail Hawk, a two-cylinder 1/3 Corvair ultralight engine conversion, and the Yellow Tail Hawk, a design in progress for a STOL ultralight.  Motor and flight testing will continue on Red Tail Hawk and will be updated here as new information becomes available.

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HALE Another: AeroVironment’s Global Observer

by Dean Sigler on 08/17/2010

We reported last month on Boeing’s High Altitude Long Endurance (HALE) unmanned aerial vehicle, the Phantom Eye.  Now AeroVironment’s similar HALE, the Global Observer, is undergoing initial flight testing at NASA Dryden Flight Test Center, Edwards Air Force Base, California.

Global Observer on first flight

Meant to provide “persistent” communications and remote sensing capabiliies for military or civilian applications, the less-than-10,000-pound Global Observer can carry 400-pound payloads to 65,000 feet and stay there for a week on its four electric motors, which resemble larger versions of  the Astro-Flight motors used on Helios, Pathfinder, and other AeroVironment craft.

Missions, according to the firm, include “low cost, rapidly deployable telecommunications infrastructure and GPS augmentation; hurricane and storm tracking, weather monitoring, wildfire detection, and sustained support for relief operations; and aerial imaging and mapping for commercial and environmental monitoring, agriculture crop management and harvesting optimization.”

The airplane’s cruising altitude and “field of view” place it between smaller, tactical reconnaissance craft and satellites.

Taxi testing at Edwards gives sense of GO's size

It’s 175-foot wingspan, large cargo pod and slender tail boom echo the configuration of the Boeing craft, but its small electric motors are a contrast to the hydrogen-fueled Ford engines that drive the propellers on the Phantom Eye.

 Aviation Week reports that the AeroVironment craft made its first flight August 5, and will undergo an “operational utility assessment under a joint concept technology demonstration (JCTD) sponsored by several U.S. agencies and led by Special Operations Command.”   The first flight lasted an hour, all on battery power; subsequent flights will be hydrogen powered, with the expectation that the seven day endurance will be demonstrated by the end of testing. Hydrogen power will not be from fuel cells, at least initially, but the gas is burned in the internal combustion engine in the cargo pod, which in turn runs a generator that charges batteries to power the four motors. This arrangement allows for improved operational flexibility and redundancy, claims AeroVironment.

Global Observer in Edwards AFB sunrise

Lightweight hydrogen storage tanks required a special design and construction. Other systems also needed custom approaches. Kirk Flittie, AV’s Global Observer program manager explains that operation of the internal combustion engine at stratospheric altitudes produced a “unique compression solution.” A special starter generator created by Aerovironment’s electric vehicle division can provide 60 kilowatts of power, about 2.8 kW of which is “available to the payload.” The company has not released details of the hydrogen containment, special compression, or power system. AV indicates that fuel cells might be a viable energy source in the future as weight and costs decline.

Three GO-1s are being constructed, with two slated for the test program and one set aside as backup for the program. A 250-foot span GO-2 is proposed, with longer endurance and greater payload capacities. The company plans small-scale production of the plane, with up to five Observers to be crafted in the first year.

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Dr. Jaephil Cho’s Powerful Silicon Nanotubes

by Dean Sigler on 08/16/2010

Shortly before appearing at the fourth Annual Electric Aircraft Symposium at Rohnert Park, California, Dr. Jaephil Cho was interviewed by Esther Levy of Material Views, an online resource dealing with, as the title implies, high-technology materials.　

Dr. Cho, Dean of the new Interdisciplinary School of Green Energy at Ulsan National Institute of Science & Technology (UNIST), works with lithium-ion cells, and along with Dr. Yi Cui of Stanford University, is considered among the most forward thinking researchers in the field. Where Dr. Cui’s efforts are related to development of better cathodes, Dr. Cho’s work focuses on improving anode performance. Their efforts have led to an 80-percent improvement in cathode performance, as reported in Dr. Cui’s presentation at EAS III, and a 62-percent improvement in anode performance, according to Dr. Cho’s report at EAS IV.

Dr. Jaephil Cho illuminates the intricasies of battery development. Photo by Dr. Larry Ford

Considering that “normal” battery advancement has been on the order of 10 percent per year for the last few decades, either of these announcements should be seen as a breakthrough, especially considering the small teams and relatively low budgets academic groups receive for such research compared to what large companies can spend on commercial development of these resources. Dr. Cho, for instance, oversees the activities of 21 faculty members, 50 graduate students, 10 technical staff members and four post-doctoral researchers. The Ministry of Education and Science & Technology (MEST) has provided grants to the school of $35 million over the next five years for work in energy “harvesting and storage and flexible batteries.” Dr. Cho also manages the Converging Research Center for Next Generation Battery Technologies, devoted to these pursuits.

An indication of the difficulty in developing commercially feasible cells, MEST is involved with five companies, four national laboratories and 17 universities, all pursuing the same goals as Dr. Cho’s teams. As with all high intensity efforts, the rewards are potentially lucrative – an estimated $5 billion in the lithium-ion cell market over the next five years.

In the interview, Dr. Cho explains the extent of energy research in his native Korea, and the relative size of academic, pure research, and commercial groups. “The largest research community is companies. About 2000 R&D staff at Samsung, LG Chemical, SK energy, and Hyundai Motors are working on batteries and HEVs. The next largest is universities. About 20 universities (about 200 people including faculty and graduate students) are studying in the areas of battery materials (negative, positive, and electrolytes). National laboratories take the smallest portion of the community, where about 100 R&D people are working on batteries.” Because of this broad interest and overall intense subsidization, Cho claims South Korea’s small and medium to large cells are the world’s best.

In his presentation at EAS IV, Dr. Cho explained the painstaking process by which anode improvements come about. Silicon provides a good basis for the anode, but the material takes up a great deal of lithium – 10 times more than equivalent carbon anodes and enough to store high energy levels but to also to present a problem. That much lithium reacting with the other materials causes the silicon anode to expand and contract during charging and discharging. Since silicon is brittle, this eventually leads to cracking of the anode. Dr. Cho, collaborating with Dr. Cui, came up with silicon nanotube anodes, which resemble drinking straws. Cho notes the surface area inside and out the tubes allow for reaction with other battery materials. The shape, with its additional space over nanowires, allows more flexibility for expansion and contraction. Think of the difference in surface area between a strand of angel hair spagehtti and a penne pasta tube to create a culinary metaphor. 

Dr. Cho reflected on trying different types of material combinations to achieve greater energy storage and faster release of that energy.  Lithium cobalt oxide (Li Co O2) batteries, for instance, have a higher rate capacity, charging and discharging high levels of energy in a short time,  than other lithium-ion cells, but build up tremendous heat in doing so, and sometimes explode under stress.   These have been used in consumer electronics such as laptop computers, and occasional news items and product recalls have highlighted safety concerns.  Scaling such batteries to meet electric vehicle needs increases the danger of catastrophic failure; heat buildup and mechanical stresses lead to a relatively short cycle life for such cells.

Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFePO4) cells avoid the fire or explosion issue of other cells, leading to their acceptance for vehicles such as the Chevrolet Volt.  Most such applications use groups of 18650 cells, 18 millimeters in diameter and 65 millimeters in length.   Their small size individually reduces heat buildup and internal mechanical stressing, which leads to a high cycle life, and arranging them in series and parallel arrays allows for the wattage and amperage necessary.  

The team’s study, “Silicon Nanotube Battery Anodes,” appears in the journal Nano Letters

A list of Dr. Cho’s other papers can be found here.　

The high energy capability of the new battery materials shows promise, and Dr. Cho has created templates that would allow commercial production within three years.  As with many such enterprises, further research is needed to provide the longevity that will be required in electric vehicle applications.

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CAFE News: NASA’s Colloquia Feature Dr. Seeley

by Dean Sigler on 08/14/2010

col·lo·qui·um (n.)

1. An informal meeting for the exchange of views.

2. An academic seminar on a broad field of study, usually led by a different lecturer at each meeting.

The Free Dictionary

CAFE Foundation President Dr. Brien Seeley spoke by invitation at the Sigma Series Colloquium at NASA Langley in Hampton, Virginia on May 4th. His talk had an illustrious heritage as part of the longest-running science colloquia in America, beginning 50 years ago with a presentation by Werner von Braun, and since then including talks by Carl Sagan, Alex Haley, Neil Armstrong and other notables.

Dr. Seeley addresses Langley Sigma Series Colloqium

Dr. Seeley was interviewed by NASA public relations TV and a local news station. Although not used to being treated like a celebrity, he found that, “People seem to think CAFE is latched on to an exciting future.”

His talk focused on themes he has been developing for years – time wasted in traffic, the burden of maintaining the freeway/highway/urban sprawl infrastructure, the oil consumed in pointless waiting in traffic or in crawling through a drive-in window lineup (22 percent of meals are ordered through a car window).

Dr. Seeley’s presentation discussed these problems and offered a novel solution – specialized, probably electric, light aircraft. This is not a frivolous conjecture on his part. It follows a multi-discipline approach that he and NASA have developed over the years, including automated flight controls that would allow an electronic Certified Flight Instructor to always be in the cockpit with any pilot.  Dr. Seeley has done extensive study in the area of neurological connectivity and mechanical-electronic enhancement of human capabilities. Couple automated controls and navigation with “niche” aircraft that fill the gap between commercial airliners and ground transportation for short to medium range flight, and you have the basis for substantially reducing terrestrial congestion.

According to the NASA report on the Colloquium, “Seeley is extolling the value of quiet, electric-powered personal air vehicles in pocket airports in communities as a way to beat the freeway madness.  Take as few as 4 percent of the cars off the road, he said, using a Michigan statistic,” and gridlock can be undone.

The NASA report goes on; “Put those 4 percent of drivers in a personal air vehicle. Electric motors beat the noise. Extreme Short Take Off and Landing techniques beat the space issue. Technology makes the vehicles easier to fly. They even have their own paths to beat aerial traffic.

“’The sky theoretically can be divided into an almost limitless number of freeway lanes, overpasses, underpasses, off-ramps,’ Seeley said. ‘A computer system will be able to allocate in real time what might be considered a ‘wormhole’ through the sky. It’s a 4-d pathway, the fourth-dimension being time.

“’The ‘wormhole’ that takes you from Hampton to Richmond might be a different shape for each of the people who make that commute. Or it could be a repeatable time frame in which people are directed with a certain time spacing, one ahead of the other.

The scenario works for trips up to about 250 miles. The door-to-door speed at that distance, including that part spent on a 540 mph airplane, is about the equivalent of a 55-mph drive – if you could drive 55 mph in gridlock.”

Speaking to NASA engineers and scientists in the afternoon, Dr. Seeley repeated his lecture for the public at the Virginia Air and Space Center in the evening.

CAFE's Dr. Brien Seeley and NASA's Dr. Mark Moore at Langley entrance

Following his presentation, Dr. Seeley told CAFE Board members, he, “Spent two hours in the morning in Ken Goodrich’s cool simulation lab looking at and flying his haptic simulator and brainstorming synthetic vision, NextGen, and airspace safety.” At a dinner that evening, Dr. Seeley found a supportive group of current and former NASA chiefs, all hopeful that CAFE will obtain NASA headquarters support for Green Flight Challenge II.

An eye surgeon, Dr. Seeley learned to fly while in medical school, is self taught in aerodynamics, helped build two experimental aircraft, and founded the CAFE Foundation in 1981. Professionally, according to NASA, “He was elected vice president of his 155-physician specialty group and president of the University of California at San Francisco Cordes Eye Society. The Sonoma County (Calif.) Medical Association awarded him ‘Outstanding Contribution to Sonoma County Medicine in 2003’ for his 10 years of publishing diverse medical science articles in the journal, Sonoma Medicine.”

Another NASA press release explains some of NASA’s relationship with CAFE. “In summer 2005, NASA and CAFE signed a Space Act Agreement for CAFE to host the NASA Centennial Challenge (CC) for Aviation, a 5 year program. CAFE conducted the first two CC flight competitions in Santa Rosa in both 2007 and 2008. In July 2011, the CAFE team will host the first ever NASA Green Flight Challenge for 200-MPG aircraft.”

This continuing dialogue with NASA is crucial to CAFE’s mission to improve our overall quality of life through developing means to reduce congestion, pollution, greenhouse gases, and time wasted with today’s overwhelmed highway system.  This is not just about little airplanes, but using those craft to capture the public imagination and promote new technology and new visions for a better future.

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Making Good Use of “Underutilized Space”

by Dean Sigler on 08/13/2010

Airports and air bases occupy lots of space, especially if they have crossing runways.  The acreage consumed to protect the public from the long narrow strips of asphalt or concrete can be considerable.  Making good use of the “waste” space might make airports more economically viable.  Arizona’s Luke Air Force Base is planning to use its space to generate electricity through solar power, just as Nevada’s Nellis Air Force Base has since 2007. 

Nellis AFB's 14,000 tracking solar panels

According to the Associated Press, the “Arizona Public Service Co. has announced plans for the largest solar installation on U.S. government property.”  The 15-megawatt solar power plant will be 1 mW larger than the system at Nellis, and will be online by next summer.   52,000 tracking solar panels located on 101 acres on the Base will supply about 50 percent of the facility’s electrical needs, or the equivalent required for 3,750 Arizona homes.

The project will create 550 jobs and remove 19,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year, according to SunPower Corporation, manufacturer of the panels.

The AP continues, “APS President and Chief Operating Officer Don Robinson says the solar project helps both organizations meet their renewable energy needs.”   Similar considerations drove Nellis’s decision, based on Nevada’s requirements that 15 percent of all the state’s electricity be generated by renewable energy sources by 2013.

Nellis AFB’s similar plant comprises 72,000 tracking solar panels and generates 14 megawatts of electricity, 25 percent of the base’s needs.  The 26-week installation followed three years of planning.  

SunPower claims that their Solar Tracker T20 used at Nellis requires only half the land of conventional tracking solar panels per megawatt of output.  This high efficiency requires fewer panels and leads to lower installation costs.

On the civilian side, Medford Airport in Oregon installed solar panels on hangar roofs several years ago, providing much of the power required for field operation.  What if that “underutilized” space surrounding our landing strips were utilized in power production?  That would be a very good reason to keep the otherwise beleagured airport in the neighborhood.

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Power From the People

by Dean Sigler on 08/10/2010

GENeco, a United Kingdom waste treatment company, announced its new green alternative to fossil fuels – the methane from waste treatment plants.  Proposed over 40 years ago in the U. S., the energy source was ignored as an automotive (and potential aircraft fuel) for four decades because it was too “dirty” a fuel (insert obligatory joke here), although GENeco has been able to remove CO2  that would otherwise be problematical in an economical enough way to allow its use in vehicles.

The company’s web site explains their expertise in such matters.  “Part of the Wessex Water group of companies, GENeco has the resources, experience, skills and financial strength to offer secure, long-term commitment to businesses, organisations and the agricultural sector looking to become more environmentally friendly.

“Generating around 35GWh of electricity a year, with the exception of landfill gas, we are producing more electricity than all the other forms of renewable energy combined in the region we operate, which includes Dorset and the former county of Avon.

GENeco's process for methane fuel conversion

“Research suggests that nationally, the anaerobic digestion of food waste, livestock slurries, sewage sludge and energy crops to produce biogas could contribute approximately 10 to 20TWh of the UK’s heat and power by 2020, which represents up to 7.5% of the renewable energy estimated to be required by 2020.”

Questioned on Dylan Ratigan’s MSNBC news program this afternoon, company General Manager Mohammed Saddiq noted that a VW Beetle is driving about the streets of Bristol, and is known to the company as the “Bio-Bug,” but to locals as the “Dung Beetle.”  (Insert rim shot here.).  He explained that 70 toilets in Bristol provide enough raw materials to drive the Beetle 10,000 miles per year. 

Bio-Bug with GENeco recycling manager Sean Hill

 Besides generating fuel for the Bio-Bug from the methane released during sewage treatment, the waste treatment plants provide their own plant electricity through burning the biogas and then supply surplus electricity to the national grid. 

“With the surplus gas we had available we wanted to put it to good use in a sustainable and efficient way.

“We decided to power a vehicle on the gas offering a sustainable alternative to using fossil fuels which we so heavily rely on in the UK.

“If you were to drive the car you wouldn’t know it was powered by biogas as it performs just like any conventional car. It is probably the most sustainable car around.”  The lightly converted Beetle loses no performance to the new fuel, being able to hit 114 mph.

GENeco claims that, “If all the biogas produced at Avonmouth was converted to run cars it would avoid around 19,000 tonnes of CO2.”

Besides producing methane gas, the firm’s waste treatment plants supply biosolid fertilizer to the region’s farmers, and are set on processing food wastes to increase production of fuel-grade methane.

The diversion of otherwise toxic wastes to more benign purposes and the beneficial effects to the environment certainly make this a process worthy of study.

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Smart Skies Down Under

by Dean Sigler on 08/10/2010

Mr Richard R. Glassock holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering with honors, and supervises undegraduate unmanned aerial vehicle projects at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) with the Australian Research Centre for Aerospace Automation (ARCAA).

He currently leads the “Smart Skies” unmanned aerial systems flight-testing program and is working on his Master’s Thesis.

At the Twenty-Fourth Bristol International Unmanned Air Vehicle Systems Conference, in 2009, Bristol United Kingdom he presented a detailed paper on a parallel hybrid system using off the shelf model aircraft components he and his associates designed and tested. “Multimodal Hybrid Powerplant for Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) Robotics” shows the use of an OS 10 cc model airplane engine, combined with a Plettenberg 220 motor. His group found that climb rates of the combined powerplants were improved 56 percent over that for an internal-combustion engine only, and that endurance increased by 13 percent, based on the combined efficiencies of the hybrid components.

Glassock hybrid set up for dynamometer testing

Richard is a regular reader of the CAFE blog and would like to exchange ideas with other designers and engineers.  He is open to critiques of his paper from qualified individuals.

For those like me with shorter attention spans, another paper, “Design, Modelling and Measurement of Hybrid Powerplant for Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS),” covers much of the same terrain in a more compact format.

Richard also shares another paper from the Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute, (RASEI), at the University of Colorado’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).

“Hybrid Propulsion System for UAVs,” by Professor Jean N. Koster with Aerospace Engineering Sciences at the University, deals with a parallel hybrid system, in which both power units drive the propeller. As with Dr. Andrew Frank and Greg Stevenson’s system described in their paper at EAS IV, all these systems have common arrangements of components.

Richard helps organize the UAV Challenge every year, and this year’s competition, Outback Rescue 2010, has opportunities for delivery of needed payloads to an outback location, robotic delivery of payloads, and a search and rescue mission – finding Outback Bob and getting help to him. The contest is held September 27 through 30 this year.

Since many of the model aircraft engines, especially four-stroke models, are somewhat small, Richard has high hopes for Ricardo’s new heavy fuel, spark ignition engine, the Ricardo Wolverine. The twin-cylinder, three-horsepower unit is designed specifically for UAV use and could be adapted to hybrid use. The wide range of electric motors available would allow optimizing the performance and economy of many combinations using this engine.

Ricardo Wolverine UAV engine

Finally, Richard reports,“We had an interesting day with one of our UAVs the other week. This particular machine; is basically a powered sailplane, and we found ourselves with a nice thermic day and good clouds directly in front of the base station. So we commanded a descent (which puts the engine to idle and regulates the airspeed) but manoeuvred in autonomous mode under the clouds. We climbed several thousand feet and added half an hour to the endurance before deciding to land. This particular UAV will be a prime candidate for hybridization since we have to carry a large proportion of battery, but cannot carry full fuel due to runway take off performance limitations. An onboard generator combined with boost power for take-off will likely improve our endurance by 100%.”

Glassock Autosoar on "a nice thermic day"

Thank you, Richard, for the excellent input on off-the-shelf hybrids.

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