The complete Capstone Drive System, which features microturbine along with liquid cooled power electronics, permanent magnet traction drive motor and vehicle power control system, will be used to integrate microturbines into a series hybrid electric drivetrain.
The Capstone HEV product offering, which now includes inverter drives, traction motors and a vehicle power control module as a part of its joint development agreement with CalMotors, will integrate with Capstone 30kW and 65kW microturbines. The inverters and traction motors are mobile hardened versions of the Parker Hannifin industrial motor drive products.
The Capstone microturbines capable of operating with equal efficiency on traditional liquid fuels such as diesel and biodiesel and alternative fuels such as natural gas makes the drive system suitable for a wide range of EV applications.
Jim Crouse, executive vice president of sales and marketing at Capstone, said: “This demonstration project is the first of several vehicle applications we are working on that will use the new Capstone Drive Solution.
“The other projects include Class 4 commercial trucks and Class 8 tractors and utilize both new OEM applications like this one and retrofits to existing vehicles. We are also pursuing marine applications for both auxiliary power and propulsion.”
