A scientist has come up with an invention that could save million of gallons of fuel every day.
Called the 'Plug-in Hybrid Retrofit Kit,' it has been developed by Dr Charles Perry, an electrical engineer and holder of the Russell Chair of Manufacturing Excellence at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro.
It could double the average mileage per gallon. If 50 per cent of the automobiles in America used it, it could save 120 million gallons of fuel per day -- globally, as much as 600 million gallons per day.
It will reduce carbon emissions and could create 2,000 new manufacturing jobs.
"Environmental quality will be enhanced and energy savings will result," Perry said of the patent application that will reduce carbon emissions.
The Plug-in Hybrid received the Tennessee Technology Development Corporation's first-place award of $50,000 in the semi-annual series of grants designed to help Tennessee inventors take their innovations from the lab to the marketplace.
The award was tops among 15 proposals from institutions around the state.
With 80 per cent of Americans driving an average of 28 miles per day in their vehicles, Perry said the wheel hub motor (in hybrid mode) would double drivers' gas mileage and that it mainly would be an around-town function, not for highway driving.
He said that once it becomes mass-produced, the target consumer installation cost would be $3,000 to $5,000.
"Our first goal is to build a demonstration of a working prototype. Then, working with the state of Tennessee, we'd like to build one dozen to two dozen prototypes," Perry said.
"We'd like to put them on state vehicles to get data. Then we'd look at a capital investment. Ultimately, Palmer Labs would like to build a facility that would create 2,000 jobs," he added.
