Human hybrid
Human hybrid is well-known technology, that combines human power with electric energy to produce a vehicle that is initially powered only by human, however drives a lot more efficiently than regular human powered vehicle.
Let’s look at the example: we have a hill, that is equilateral, that means it is the same from both sides.
A cyclist is going from A to B over that hill. He will get to the top of the hill in an hour, but descend from it in only 15 minutes due to the slope.
If the hill is 10 km across that means thatmean velocity of the cyclist would be10/(1 + ¼)=8 km/h.
However real velocities are:5/1=5 km/h and 5/0.25=20 km/h(and mean velocity of those is(5+20)/2=12.5 km/h)
If there would be some way of storing energy when descending and releasing it when ascending then cyclist will be able to maintain his speed constant throughout his journey.
Then he would go up the hill at the velocity of 12.5 km/h and down the hill with the same velocity, decreasing time spent on his voyage
from
1 h 24 minutes
1 h 24 minutes
to only
48 minutes
Then he would go up the hill at the velocity of 12.5 km/h and down the hill with the same velocity, decreasing time spent on his voyage
Of course, in real world, it is impossible to build a 100% efficient engine, but for each application there is a threshold of efficiency where n-efficient engine starts to make sense in certain conditions. For example, in case explained above, n=85 it is already sufficient to improve the time spent on a journey, if the difference in speeds in not that significant – then more efficient engine is needed to build a viable human-hybrid alternative.
IBC ETDC managed to produce an engine with 95% efficiency, both in propulsion and in recuperation, that means that it is beneficial in most real-world cases.
IBC ETDC managed to produce an engine with 95% efficiency, both in propulsion and in recuperation, that means that it is beneficial in most real-world cases.