The aerospace future is embracing the hybrid technology, but not as you think
Quick question
Why Full Electric is not yet competitive at all with conventional thermal engines? Simply because the energy density ratio between jet A1 fuel and the best battery in the market is 1 to 30. Means that the energy stored in a kg of jet fuel needs to be replaced with 30kg of battery. So the ‘fuel’ will weight 30 times the current one.
Quick conclusion
If we want to build a full electric airplane, and we expect to have the same range of a normal jet airplane replòacing the thermal engine with electric engine… simply we will build an airplane that cannot fly because its weight is over what it can lift up.
By the way
Some innovations are anyway possible, like the one we are bringing ahead, in order to increase the efficiency of the current state of the art, like using system able to convert all the energy wasted in heat, turbulences, and other in electric energy available for the services.
Durante reveals the new fine artworks totally handmade on recycled carbon fibres in artistic collaboration with the Whiteblood Foundation
26 April 2022
The “Seven Seas” is a new fine artwork concept made by hand entirely in recycled carbon fiber (the live carbon).
The artwork is the exclusive result of the artistic merging of design, materials and prototyping of our artist and technicians. The Collections is a masterpiece of combination of art, technology, experience and specialized hand manufacture, whose extraordinary workmanship, unique and of rare stylistic value is manifested in every detail, starting from the chromatic balance to the harmony of lines and contours.
The work is thus capable of enhancing the table and the foods offered and presented to the guest in a unique setting capable of enhancing the colors, textures and shapes of the food, allowing the chef a unique and unattainable stage.
The collection could be created on demand, using motifs or hand painting that act as a reference to art plovers , thus rediscovering spaces, emotions and sensations of nautical contexts characterized by a stylistic and cultural caliber.
Our group, an active member of the Whiteblood Art Foundation, has been engaged for many years in the fields of advanced research and high-tech materials and, in the spirit of its founders, pursues and pursues with its work an artistic aim capable of embellishing and emblazoning every single realization.
‘Art leads us with kindness and passion, through high technology, towards new exemplary beauties of circular economy’
Dr. Eng. Sergio Durante presents new artworks made on recycled carbon fibres in collaboration with Cracking Art and the Whiteblood Foundation
26 April 2022
The link between Technology and Sustainability that has always accompanied Durante industries strategy, married the Cracking Art philosophy, in an even more intense commitment.
Today we need to work by minimizing waste, reducing the environmental impact, following the Circular Economy, creating new models of production and consumption that involves sharing, lending, reuse, repair, reconditioning and recycling of existing materials and products for as long as possible.
This pushes the artistic collective towards the use of the second life of some high-performance materials.
The message of Durante and Cracking Art is now even stronger and sees the launch of a new super exclusive collection of limited-edition Artworks in Recycled Carbon.
PLASTIC AND CARBON: A COMMON ORIGIN
Just like Plastic, Carbon also sees its origin from oil.
Acrylonitrile is, in fact, a chemical produced through a complex oil-based process on an industrial scale. The fibers are obtained from synthetic chemical compounds derived from coal and petroleum reduced to filaments of various lengths.
Among the characteristics of carbon fiber stand out the high mechanical strength, lightness, thermal insulation capacity, resistance to temperature changes and to the effect of chemicals.
RECYCLED CARBON AND ARTWORKS
The process of creation of the Artworks in recycled carbon fiber is particularly complex, both in terms of materials, know-how and handwork skills; it is in fact carried out by gifted specialised personnel that follows the process in its entirety, from the realization of the components to the operations of recovery of the fibers and, together with the collaboration of the artists , works in the creation of Artworks in limited edition.
FROM CATALYTIC CRACKING TO A PHYSICAL RUPTURE.
The term Cracking Art comes from the English verb “to crack” and describes the act of breaking, collapsing. With the name of catalytic cracking is also called the chemical reaction that transforms crude oil into plastic: for the Artists this is the moment when the natural becomes artificial, the organic is transformed into synthetic, and it is this process that they intend to represent through their art.
Similar process happens with the recycled carbon fibres, where the end-of-life components are reduced to their original basic materials through a complex process.
Every sculpture is unique and special because it comes from a physical break, from the piece of a car, the wing of an airplane, or from the mast of a competition boat, to cite some examples.
Each piece is totally handmade, supervised at each stage and customized. Starting from the material of origin and the artistic flair that intervenes from time to time, we witness the birth of a modern Prometheus that through its uniqueness becomes the vehicle of a powerful message.
THE PENGUIN, THE FIRST ARTWORK
The first artwork is the famous Cracking Art Penguin, chosen for its strong symbolism: it is a social animal whose survival is linked to the problem of global warming and the consequent melting of the ice.
The Penguin, a much-loved animal but constantly endangered, reminds us of the fundamental commitment to reduce CO2 emissions.
The material that composes it comes from a Porsche Prototype race car.
The Penguin in recycled carbon is a limited edition artwork realised in 8 copies, signed and numbered.
49 x 48 x 120 cm 19,2 x 18,8 x 47,2 in
THE CAR DONOR OF THE CARBON FIBRES
This car has a rich history of events and emotions.
Born as a road sports car in 1999 it was acquired by Ing. Sergio Durante after a few years of life in traffic, to be transformed into a race car for ice rallies and uphill races.
The original body has been completely rebuilt in carbon fiber to drastically reduce the weight, essential in ice racing, the enhanced engine and all internal parts modified for the safety of drivers. The car has distinguished itself with results of extreme value.
It participated and succeeed in famous endurance races such as the Ronde Hinvernale. It competed also in the 12Hours on Ice, in France on famous circuits such as Serre Chevalier, winning events, and shone in the Ice Series on the Italian and Austrian Alps. During the summer season it won the famous European Mountain Championship of Cesana Sestriere three times in a row in its extreme category.
The most stressed pieces, such as the bumpers and the rear wing were disassembled and subjected to the process of recovering carbon fibers, and then reused in the creation of an iconic animal such as the penguin Cracking Art.
New clusters of projects for sustainable energy production
New clusters of projects for sustainable energy production
Dr. Eng. Sergio Durante announced the new clusters of projects for sustainable clean energy production, from nuclear fusion to wind power
25 April 2022
The EU aims to become climate neutral by 2050, and to achieve this goal, wind energy technologies will need to unlock their full potential for affordable and reliable clean energy production.
Today the energy crisis related to the current complex political situation in the East of Europe is pushing even more the needs to migrate to alternative sustainable energy.
The wind
The next generation of wind farms will be much more powerful and need to be supported with an even more innovative set of physical and digital tools, as well as operational controls, collectively referred to as wind farm control, to improve overall farm power generation and improve the overall reliability. The wind park is growing from year to year (for example, in 2021, more than 80% of new electrical capacity was renewable), while solar and wind energy accounted for 91% of new renewable energy sources. We proposes to use the latest developments in the field of artificial intelligence AI, offering obvious advantages through Big Data management and machine learning strategies, bringing to significant impacts on the overall reliability and efficiency of the complex electro mechanical system of the wind turbine. New IPR protected ideas are on the lab development.
The Nuclear Fusion
Nuclear fusion can become a promising option to replace fossil fuels as the world’s primary energy source and can have an important role to play in addressing the climate change. Benefits to society from fusion include: the abundance and accessibility of fuel, the carbon free footprint, the absence of high-level radioactive waste.
We are investigating a new way to improve the control of the thermonuclear plasma with the ultimate goal to generate electricity at commercial scale.
Our internal project aims at bringing into the reality an innovative Fusion Nuclear Plasma containment system based on AC and fully controlled by AI based efficiency management, predictive maintenance, stability and fluctuation compensating unit. The system is based on AI electronic controller of a new AC managed plasma nuclear reactor power unit (HW and SW) to be integrated into the nuclear power generator, reducing as much as possible installation issues further enhancing their acceptance on the market enabling to operate at zero emissions, respecting the environment and complying with all upcoming nuclear safety legislations. This is expected to have a huge impact initially in the power energy industry.
New clusters of projects for sustainable energy production
New concept of hybrid hypercar 2100 HP
Dr. Eng. Sergio Durante announced the project on a new astonishing 2100 HP hybrid car
15 December 2021
The project upscale and integrate a new concept of Artificial Intelligence into a human interface and total management of a super efficient, high performance green Hybrid powertrain based car, in two market sectors: the high-exigent market of the daily life utility cars, using as commercialisation strategy the penetration in the hand made ‘a la carte’ exclusive cars market and then in the everyday car through supporting OEM.
The concept of the car proposes a integrated customised self learning interface avatar (with specific features, among the others: face recognition, health check of the driver and passengers, transferability of the virtual assistant to other platform like the phone or other devices of the user), block chain system to encrypt all the access to the car, innovative token on the value of the car and for the investors in the startup company. The technologies explored are the extended use of Energy Harvesters, a new concept of axial flux electric engine, new high performance batteries and revolutionary management and interface. The activity approach will keep into the account from the critical rare materials savings to the test on the road for final homologation to the commercialisation of the concept and the product.
Mazzanti Automobili and Dr. Eng. Sergio Durante announced a collaboration agreement on new hybrid powertrain and innovative light materials structures for chassis
12 May 2020
Mazzanti Automobili and Dr. Eng. Sergio Durante presented a new innovation collaboration programs to develop and test a super powerful hybrid powertrain capable to sport about 2000 HP. The vehicles powertrain electrification is one of the main answers to the problem of the growing greenhouse gases and the reduction of noxious emissions. So Mazzanti and Durante accepted the challenge and decided to develop together an impressive technical solutions that will be the reference of the state of the art in the automotive panorama in the next years.
The project overall concept is to integrate a new property concept of super-high performance green powertrain in a Mazzanti Evantra car to improve the performance on one hand and, on the other hand, to widely disseminate a serious solution for the human health and the environment preservation. The activity approach will keep into the account from the critical rare materials savings to the test on the road for final homologation to the commercialisation of the concept and the product. Objective is to develop and integrate the best hybrid powertrain technology, patented, with the energy harvester systems, into the Mazzanti emblematic high performances hyper car.
This impressive applications will push the dissemination at the level never seen before, showing the path how to dramatically accelerate the exploitation to the every day car application. Dr. Eng. Sergio Durante, in the Motorsport field, already anticipated the planning of the FIA (International Automobile Federation) of 5 years building in 2017 the first hybrid rally race car for Ice racing in the World, which was the most extreme bench test for the electric technology.
The car, despite races carried out at the critical temperatures of -25ºC for the electric powertrain, won immediately the 2018 championship ICE CHALLENGE in the innovative powertrain category, showing performances and reliability never seen for a brand new concept of car. The race car was equipped with a V6 3lt engine characterised by 340HP and an electric unit sporting 200kW. The total power of the car was 610HP, 960kg of weight with an overall consumption reduction of 15% and pollution reduction of 23%, in comparison with the best in class competitors. Mazzanti will exploit the Durante experience and also the new innovations in the energy harvesters, that permit to recover energy from the delta temperatures: the harvested electric energy will be then straight used or stocked in batteries for the electric unit. This activity will imply a revision of the mechanical, thermal, electric and electronic architecture of the traction line. The electronic and power electric circuit will be correctly dimensioned in order to manage with the best efficiency the flux of energies. All this activity will take also into the account the Life Cycle Engineering approach.You may also like
The short to medium automotive future is Hybrid, not electric
Why Full Electric Cars are not competitive at all with conventional thermal engines, and in particular with diesel? Full Electric car are the latest innovation in the transport market.
✓ They are fantastically promoted by any kind of media and politic speech,
✓ They are indicated like the technology answer to the problem of the greenhouse gases and noxious emissions.
✓ They are contributing even in reducing the effect of the viruses: the last discovers proves that the viruses like COVID19 are spread much more easily in presence of fine powders in the air (PM10), as known, generated by combustion of diesel, gasoline engines (in reality PM10 are mainly generated by road surfaces scratch by the heavy cars use).
✓ They have beautiful names like Tesla (exploiting the name of the genius Nikola Tesla), Taycan, i3 (like intelligent 3), etc….
✓ They have fantastic acceleration (really!!)
✓ They are perfect in the sprint races
BUT as cars of everyday use, I think they are not encountering the expected success. We are sorry to be out of the mainstream opinion, but really, full electric car are and will be a huge flop.
WHY??? Because…. have you ever seen a Full Electric car always on the fast line in the highway in Italy or Germany? No? Maybe there is a reason for that…
To be clear: 30 minutes of refuelling in super charger is simply too much, moreover you will not get 100% of battery but more or less half of the maximum range.
Professionals travelling on the highway have to run to work and doing businesses, they cannot waste 30 minutes of precious time at the recharging station every 150-200km.
Moreover imagine you arrive home after a busy day and your brand new 100.000 euros Full Electric SUV is empty. You attach your car to the charger in garage and suddenly you realize that you forget too buy something (or, even worst, you have an emergency) … then? What are you doing?
YOU CALL A TAXI!!! Because your brand new SUV is like a useless furniture.
We have driven and used several times Teslas, BMW i3, Porsche Taycan, so we exactly know what we are writing: the currently produced full electric cars are extremely performant in term of acceleration, reduction of local emissions and noise, but these electric cars are still ages far away from the freedom of use and practicality of a diesel car, that you can refuel everywhere, in 5 minutes, every 1000km.
This fact happens for two main reasons:
1- the energy density in the best battery in the market is 20 times lower then fossil fuel. It means that at 130 km/h in normal traffic driving conditions, with a kg of fully charged battery you drive for 1km, while with a kg of diesel you drive for 20km
2- the recharging time are sooooo long, and the fast charge at supercharger is not giving you the same autonomy of the 9 hours recharging at home (exactly like your iphone).
3- the infrastructure and manufacturing of the cars are all but green and not yet enough developed in terms of efficiency and sustainability
Batteries do not produce electricity – they store electricity, which is produced elsewhere, especially by coal, uranium, ground-gas-powered power plants or diesel-powered generators. So the claim that an electric car is a zero-emission vehicle is not at all true and, if the 40% of the electricity is produced from coal power plants (USA, UK, EU), is like 40% of cars are running on coal.
A typical electric car battery weighs a 500kg, about the size of a travel suitcase. It contains about 13kg of lithium, 30kg of nickel, 23kg of manganese, 15kg of cobalt, 100kg of copper and 200 kg of aluminum, steel and plastic. There are over 6,000 individual lithium-ion cells inside.
This means that FOR EACH BEV battery, you need to process 12.500 kg of sole for lithium, 15.000 kg of resin for the cobalt, 2.500 kg of resin for nickel and 13.000kg of copper for the copper. All in all you need to dig 250.000 kg of the earth crust for a battery. “
Then let’s speak about solar energy to produce ‘green energy’…The main problem with solar systems is the chemicals used to convert silicon into the silicon used for the panels. In order to produce sufficient pure silicon, it must be processed with salic acid, sulfur acid, salpetic acid, fluoride hydrogen, trichlorethane and acetone.
In addition rare materials like gallium, arsenide, copper indium gallium dieselenide and cadmium telluride are needed, which are also highly toxic. Silicone dust poses a threat to workers, and the plates cannot be recycled.
And wind energy?? Wind turbines are the nonplusultra in terms of costs and environmental destruction. Each windwheel weighs 1688 tons (which is equivalent to 23 houses) and contains 1300 tons of concrete, 295 tons of steel, 48 tons of iron, 24 tons of glass fiber, and the hard-to-earth rare earth neodym, praseodym and dysprosium. Each of the three shovels weighs 40.000 kg and has a life span of 15 to 20 years, then they must be replaced. We can’t yet recycle efficiently used rotor leaves.This is why we are really focus on the wind power generation efficiency and reliability using AI based systems.
Coming back to the car, the problem is that the tests on road of range are always made in the perfect condition to show off performances difficult to reproduce in the real conditions. In fact serious on-road tests are highlighting the criticality of the FEV (full electric vehicle) range in real use conditions. Imagine: you are stuck in a queue on the highway, it is raining and you have air conditioning on (conditions quite typical in Europe), you are really in the nightmare worst condition for your battery.
Despite the fact that the industry is working to improve the battery packs efficiency and the EVs performances and, in the meantime, the charging infrastructures are increasing, still medium-long distances are difficult to cover, and even the latest rapid charge time are not fast enough for an efficient and convenient use of the car.
Furthermore, beside the real potential EVs performances, the range anxiety is a factor which cannot be ignored, and surely negatively influences the EVs market penetration. A lot of promotion is currently bombarding users about the advantages of the use of a full electric car, but in reality only users living in big towns and having an urban profile use could benefit from a full electric car, without a lot of stress. But for the users that need flexibility and urban and both extra urban profile use the full electric is not yet viable at all.
This is why our effort are mainly focused on two directions:
The short to medium terms efforts are targeted on the hybrid technology, Hydrogen and sustainable fuels. These solutions are merging together the advantages of the conventional thermal engines, the next generation of electric motors, the energy harvesting systems.
The medium to long term mass commercialisation for the full electric cars is totally relied on the application of the principle of Life Cycle Engineering specifically on batteries and energy production and infrastructures.
This seems to be the correct answer for the today and incoming future of the cars. With the hybrid engine you can run in the highway as usual, you refuel your car in 3 minutes, you drive in the center of the town in full electric mode, you can use your air conditioning, and, if you want, you can also listen to…. the engine sound!!!
Our first worldwide hybrid rally car for Ice Racing, 2017. 630 HP combined, 0-100 in 1.5s, almost same weight of thermal car. Winner of the Ice Challenge International Championship 2018
AMRC with Boeing Board Meeting in Philadelphia at Hangsterfer’s
Hangersterfer’s&Group hosted on the 8th May the AMRC with Boeing Board Meeting in its premises in Philadelphia.
Representatives of the biggest aerospace companies and their suppliers came from all the corner of the Earth. Boeing, Airbus, Rolls Royce, Starrag Eckert, Messier Bugatti Dowty, BAE Systems, DELCAM, OSG, D4S Motorsport, MetsoftPro, Sandvik, Maegerle, Spirit Aerospace, KCT Group, DMG-Mori, McLaren, Renishaw, StarGB, Techicut, SECOTools top managers came from all over the world to join this important annual event.
The Board decided the new strategies for the next period. As usual, in the evergreen spirit of the AMRC, this occasion was a fantastic opportunity to empower relationships and business opportunities. The event has been magisterially organised by Ed and Nicolette Jones, the family owning the company Hangsterfer.
The meeting offered the opportunity to visit the production line of Hangersterfer’s and some beautiful corners of the USA.
Saturday, 17, January, 2018 – Pragelato, Torino (IT)
Sergio Durante during tests and various pics of the car
The racing car D4S HybridSport build by D4SMotorsport, in collaboration with the French companies EFESTO and 3Y Technology, Innovation Department, represent the first hybrid car in the world for rally on ice, putting a milestone in the use of electric powertrain in extreme weather and temperature conditions, like the ones meet in the Ice Challenge 2018 Championship.
The powertrain is based on a racing V6 3.0l internal combustion engine (ICE) with an output of 340HP, torque of 370Nm, integrated with a innovative electric unit, weighting 20Kg with 200kW of power (270 HP and 500Nm). So the car sports a spectacular power of 610 HP and 870Nm of torque, that is transmitted to the ground through a reinforced six speed sequential transmission.
The electric motor is boosted by a Ion Litium battery pack, that, with only 60Kg can push the car for the entire race with a tension of 400V.
The powertrain, constituted by the ICE engine, motor, the inverter, the battery pack, the vehicle control unit and the sequential gearbox has been studied and integrated with the ICE in strict collaboration with Efesto, European partner of DIAD Group ES.
This project represent a important step in the reduction of the environmental impact, through a more efficient use of the energy. In fact the system permits to recover energy in the braking phase, to be used in the acceleration phases. Moreover the sophisticated electronics permits numerous strategies to improve the performances during races.
The racing hybrid engines are currently used in the circuit in F1, in the Le Mans Series and few rare applications, like the Pikes Peak race. The extreme environment of the ice racing is perfect to test the performances of the systems in very low temperature and in conditions really at the limit of the current technology.
The hybrid powertrain present numerous advantages respect both to the thermal engine and the full electric solutions. With respect the conventional ICE thermal engine alone, the HybridSport shows a huge advantage in term of power and reduced consumption.
With respect to full electric solution the HybridSport can count on a weight to range advantage, that permit to face both sprint but also endurance races.
The D4S HybridSport technology, developed and tested in the prestigious Ice Challenge 2018 will bring important applications on the car of every day use.
AMRC with Boeing Board Meeting in Nagoya at OSG Corporation
Thursday and Wednesday, 18th, May, 2017
The nice view of the center of Nagoya (Japan)
OSG Group hosted on the 18th May the AMRC with Boeing Board Meeting in its premises in Nagoya.
Representatives of the biggest aerospace companies and their suppliers came from all the corner of the Earth.
Boeing, Airbus, Rolls Royce, Starrag Eckert, Messier Bugatti Dowty, BAE Systems, DELCAM, OSG, D4S Group, MetsoftPro, Sandvik, Maegerle, Spirit Aerospace, KCT Group, DMG-Mori, McLaren, Renishaw, StarGB, Techicut, SECOTools top managers came from all over the world to join this important annual event.
The Board decided the new strategies for the next period. As usual, in the evergreen spirit of the AMRC, this occasion was a fantastic opportunity to empower relationships and business opportunities.
The event has been magisterially organised by the OSG Group.
The meeting offered the opportunity to visit the incredible production line of OSG and some breathtaking corners of Japan.
