Posted on Aug 04, 2008 - 4:25pm by Wayne Weisser in Alternative Fuels, Trucks
Truckers have long used APU technology to provide the creature comforts of climate control in their cabs. This technology uses a fraction of the fuel of a diesel engine, but with increasing fuel prices and the push for companies to go green the savings simply isn’t enough.
Delphi and Peterbilt have green in their minds with their latest innovations in APU technology.
Dephi’s new APU used solid oxide fuel cells to run a Peterbilt 386’s electrical system and AC all without idling or depleting battery power. The test mimicked a truckers average day and ran successfully for a solid 10 hours (the amount of rest required for every 11 hours of driving). The SOFC APU provided an average of 800 watts of energy throughout the test.
According to Delphi this new solid oxide fuel cell APU technology has a long list of benefits to the old APU technology.
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Good.
I’m glad to hear they’re being commercialized.
Only problem I can see is that 800 watts isn’t enough. I need about four or five times that