Disclaimer 1: Hyliion wished me to cowl their 2023 Investor Day badly sufficient that they flew me all the way down to Cedar Park outdoors of Austin, put me up in a pleasant resort, and fed me as many pastries (and a few good Texas BBQ) as I may push into my face.

Disclaimer 2: I felt awkward asking questions throughout their Investor Day as a result of I wasn’t an investor. I purchased one (1) share at about $1.65 about midway by way of a cheese danish, then a second one at about $1.67 so I may ask questions on “my shares.”

“Are you able to fly to Austin on the twenty seventh?” requested the textual content from Hyliion’s comms director, Ryann Malone. “We’re having an investor occasion and we’d like to have you ever.”

I’ve sufficient pals in Austin on two and 4 wheels that it’s turn out to be nearly a second residence lately, and one other excuse to go to the Historic Scoot Inn is at all times welcome. I agreed instantly, even padding the journey with an additional day in Austin.

The flight out of Chicago’s O’Hare Worldwide airport was uneventful (which is precisely why you pay further to fly United), and I arrived in Austin simply in time to fulfill up with my good good friend, Tim Hayden, who launched me to Torchy’s Tacos and their wonderful inexperienced chile queso.

I pounced upon the spicy cheese dip savagely as we waited for the remainder of our order.

“Who’re these guys you’re right here to see, once more?” Tim requested, largely hiding a glance that stated, “these have been imagined to be for the desk.”

“Hyliion,” I stated, as I pushed the chips in direction of the middle of the desk. “Hyliion takes vans, like over-the-road semi-type vans, and converts them to hybrids – however not like, Prius hybrids. Extra like Chevy Volt hybrids.”

“So it has an electrical motor, nevertheless it has a fuel motor that’s like a generator,” he stated.

“Yeah, precisely …,” I started. “However – not precisely.”

Tim gave me a sarcastic look, however didn’t communicate.

“The quick model is that, sure, it has an inside combustion engine that it makes use of as a generator – however there’s no connection between the engine and the wheels. It’s only a generator. On the Volt, the engine did have a bodily connection to the wheels, in case you mapped out all of the gears and clutches. Right here, there’s none of that.”

“And that’s extra environment friendly,” he supplied, settling for a smallish third of the chips.

“Proper,” I supplied. “You retain the engine at its most effective RPM, and it generates constant electrical energy. Even with little or no juice within the batteries, it’s sufficient to energy the truck alongside, so that you want fewer batteries, can carry extra freight, use much less gas, yadda yadda yadda–”

“So it’s a hybrid truck,” Tim says.

“Yeah, nevertheless it’s not,” I stated once more. “They make the hybrid system, from the generator to the battery packs and the management software program and so they put it within the truck. That’s nice, nevertheless it’s not information. Nobody cares. The slick half is that the generator doesn’t have to be a giant diesel truck engine. It may be something. It may be a fuel engine, a pure fuel engine, a hydrogen gas cell, even a turbine.”

Hyliion | Generator Agnostic

Hyliion Hypertruck is generator agnostic; picture by the creator.

The speak turned to Chrysler’s turbine-powered idea automobiles and the distinctive ways in which turbine engines — and Wankel rotaries, for that matter — might be successfully put to make use of as turbines of range-extended EVs. We made all of it the best way to the good Parnelli Jones and his epic, turbine-powered tilt on the 1967 Indianapolis 500, the place his Wallis-penned STP-Paxton Turbocar led practically your complete race, earlier than retiring with transmission issues simply 4 laps from the end line.

“It was a complete conspiracy!” I stated, on a rant now. “They couldn’t simply let Granatelli blow the doorways off of Ford and Chevy and Offenhauser like that – the UAW would have buried Rufus subsequent to Jimmy Hoffa, and USAC would have loaned them the shovels!”

Tim’s been by way of sufficient of those rants to know when to tune me out, however nodded alongside politely, anyway.

“Investor days are unusual,” stated Tim, bringing us again to Hyliion and the rationale for my journey. “It’s all theater.”

I thought of this, and admitted that he was proper. I by no means go to those issues, and solely actually made this journey for 2 causes. The primary was Austin, itself, and the prospect to eat an unique model of Tex-Mex that in some way eluded Chicago’s meals scene. The second was KARNO.

The Carnot Cycle

KARNO generator on Hyliion Hypertruck KARNO; picture by the creator.

First proposed by French physicist Sadi Carnot in 1824, the “Carnot Cycle” is described as a perfect thermal engine – a theoretical, thermodynamic warmth engine that may run on any gas and that’s described as probably the most environment friendly warmth engine potential. And, for the final 200 years, it’s remained simply that: theoretical.

That’s, till GE purchased a bunch of additive laser printers and employed some sensible engineers and began pumping untold hundreds of thousands into chasing Carnot’s dream of an almost good exterior combustion engine earlier than convincing themselves it was too bizarre to reside, and promoting it (below the identify, “KARNO”) for $37 million and a $22 million stake in Hyliion … however Hyliion CEO Tom Healey is a believer, and his group have put GE’s child to work as a generator of their “generator agnostic” hybrid vans.

And, as I stated after I first noticed a 3D-printed slice of the KARNO piston engine at ACT earlier this yr, it’s the nuts.

“The KARNO generator makes use of warmth produced in its reactor to develop the working fluid in a sealed cavity,” reads the official copy. That warmth expands the working fluid (on this case, helium), pushing a piston and the magnets hooked up by way of it by way of a magnetic subject, creating electrical present.

Not simply any electrical present. Crucially, the KARNO gives sufficient electrical present to ship the 200 kW wanted to make Hyliion’s hybrid-electric tractors do their factor – with considerably decrease emissions than a standard diesel engine, even operating on diesel!

KARNO Does Diesel Higher

Hyliion KARNO emissions in comparison with diesel; picture by the creator.

At investor day, Healey introduced that not solely was KARNO totally operational, they’d taken the period of time to provide key components down as a lot as 90% by doubling up on the variety of lasers used. Much more spectacular, Healey was positioning KARNO to be a brand new type of Tesla-killer. However he’s not going after Tesla automobiles – and even Tesla Semi. As a substitute, he’s going after the Tesla Powerwall.

KARNO PowerUp

KARNO stationary generator (semi for scale); picture courtesy Hyliion.

The KARNO generator takes up much less area than a motorbike shed in your garden. And, even utilizing higher-than-average estimates for the prices of diesel or pure fuel (simply two of the twenty fuels that KARNO has been rated on), it will possibly produce electrical energy at about $0.09 per kWh. That compares fairly favorably to the nationwide common of $0.23 per kWh – and practically $0.43 per kWh in Hawaii, which nonetheless will get most of its electrical energy from diesel … all of which appears to beg the query: in case you can produce power at lower than half the price of industrial energy, why not simply construct a bunch of KARNO turbines and promote the power again into the grid?

Healey is into it. “We’re speaking to some hospital, municipalities – individuals who can’t lose energy,” he stated, after the presentation that these photos are from. “We expect it might be actually interesting to microgrids, off grid farmers – ”

“Waste oil,” I interrupted. “Completely. It’s essential to speak to the Xendee individuals. Dianne Martinez, too. Anybody who’s concerned within the grid area. Why don’t they’ve these on submarines? Why don’t they’ve these on area ships!?”

KARNO Runs on Something

A few of the fuels the KARNO can run on; picture by the creator.

Healey stays calm. “We’re speaking to a whole lot of completely different gamers,” he says. “It’s nonetheless early days. We simply began constructing our first ‘Founders’ Collection’ manufacturing Hyliion Peterbilt right now.”

He did. I noticed it, myself. It’s certainly one of thirty such vans that can be constructed and shipped to prospects by the top of 2023.

Theater

The staging was good; picture by the creator.

It’s at this level that I really feel I’ve to touch upon the theater and “showbiz” side of Hyliion’s investor day. All investor occasions are theater, after all. They exist to indicate off progress, give individuals a glance into the corporate they’re funding and all that – however Hyliion’s advertising group has raised the follow to an artwork type, constructing the lore of the massive Hypertruck KARNO idea truck the best way theme parks construct you as much as experience a dragon-themed coaster.

In case you instructed me Hyliion had employed its advertising group straight out of the Disney Imagineering corps., I’d imagine you – simply have a look at the position of these inexperienced brackets (above). Every thing simply so, with labels above the workstations like “Machine Store” and “Battery Meeting” that do nothing to tell the employees who’re there day by day, however give an actual sense of Issues which are Occurring. Issues that value Cash.

That’s to not say Hyliion is all act and no motion. Removed from it. They’ve a legit product that delivers actual advantages with out sacrificing the vary benefits of diesel. In truth, on the identical run, they’ll burn much less diesel than a diesel-only rig (assume “Prius” vs. “Corolla” and also you’re there). They’ll additionally permit a driver to “resort” in his cab for the required 34 hours – with full AC, electrical energy, and extra – all with out idling the diesel engine.

That may be a severely massive deal.

As for the Hypertruck KARNO, I obtained to experience in it. It was quiet, clean, and (for a semi) decently fast. Granted, it’s been over a decade since I final rode in an R+L cab and longer, nonetheless, since I drove a medium-duty Worldwide throughout many of the Southern states – however the Hyliion was unquestionably smoother, quieter, and sooner than these. In truth, it felt not in contrast to the Nikola Tre BEV I took across the car parking zone in Lengthy Seashore final yr … if a bit extra “regular” than the Euro-spec Tre.

And that, expensive pals, could be probably the most theatrical and dramatic factor about Hyliion’s Hypertruck: how completely regular it appears from behind the wheel.

It is a truck for truckers, in different phrases. In case you like your Peterbilt, you’ll adore it as soon as Hyliion’s performed with it – and that could be a better tablet for fleets to swallow than a “pure” BEV.

Unique content material from CleanTechnica.

I do not like paywalls. You do not like paywalls. Who likes paywalls? Right here at CleanTechnica, we applied a restricted paywall for some time, nevertheless it at all times felt incorrect — and it was at all times powerful to determine what we should always put behind there. In idea, your most unique and finest content material goes behind a paywall. However then fewer individuals learn it! We simply don’t love paywalls, and so we have determined to ditch ours.

Sadly, the media enterprise continues to be a tricky, cut-throat enterprise with tiny margins. It is a endless Olympic problem to remain above water and even maybe — gasp — develop. So …