Look up company called Edison motors in BC Canada. They are doing commercial logging trucks trucks that are diesel electric and they’re also going to be getting into work trucks 1 ton and bigger.
That's an interesting trade off. Because you are going to get added inefficiencies from the double conversion of the energy source into mechanical power BUT you get the benefit of much greater energy density with diesel vs. batteries and you get to run the diesel engine at whatever constant RPM needed for continuous peak efficiency or power as needed just as you could with a battery. But I've often seen diesel electric trains running on tracks with overhead electrical lines which would negate the need of a battery and therefore neutralises the energy density advantage of diesel. So I must be missing something here? There isn't as much of an additional energy conversion loss going diesel to electric to mechanical vs. straight electrical to mechanical as I assumed?
Well of course an electric train is better, but plenty of railway lines don't have overhead wires, although they are of course getting more common. As far as efficiency goes, there's indeed a trade of between increased efficiency of the engine, and more power wasted in the drive train. Generally speaking though, electric generators and motors can be very efficient, particularly at large scales. Therefore (surprisingly perhaps) in many cases the increased engine efficiency outweighs the extra power loss in the transmission.
Look up company called Edison motors in BC Canada. They are doing commercial logging trucks trucks that are diesel electric and they’re also going to be getting into work trucks 1 ton and bigger.
Look up company called Edison motors in BC Canada. They are doing commercial logging trucks trucks that are diesel electric and they’re also going to be getting into work trucks 1 ton and bigger.
wow didn't see that coming. thx for the explanation
That's an interesting trade off. Because you are going to get added inefficiencies from the double conversion of the energy source into mechanical power BUT you get the benefit of much greater energy density with diesel vs. batteries and you get to run the diesel engine at whatever constant RPM needed for continuous peak efficiency or power as needed just as you could with a battery. But I've often seen diesel electric trains running on tracks with overhead electrical lines which would negate the need of a battery and therefore neutralises the energy density advantage of diesel. So I must be missing something here? There isn't as much of an additional energy conversion loss going diesel to electric to mechanical vs. straight electrical to mechanical as I assumed?
Well of course an electric train is better, but plenty of railway lines don't have overhead wires, although they are of course getting more common.
As far as efficiency goes, there's indeed a trade of between increased efficiency of the engine, and more power wasted in the drive train.
Generally speaking though, electric generators and motors can be very efficient, particularly at large scales. Therefore (surprisingly perhaps) in many cases the increased engine efficiency outweighs the extra power loss in the transmission.
Look up company called Edison motors in BC Canada. They are doing commercial logging trucks trucks that are diesel electric and they’re also going to be getting into work trucks 1 ton and bigger.