Reducing fuel consumption of hybrid vehicles by replacing diesel engines with gas turbine engines

This paper is devoted to assessing the prospects of reducing fuel consumption in hybrid vehicles by replacing diesel engines with gas turbine engines, taking into account the progress made in recent years in improving the efficiency of gas turbines possibly. Reduction in fuel consumption was estimated separately for each of the classes of vehicles in accordance with their total mass: light, medium and heavy, and in each class subclasses based on differences in engine power were considered separately. Estimates were obtained by calculations utilizing a model which incorporates specified design parameters of vehicles. The results of the calculations presented in this paper show that for light vehicles of any engine power and mid-sized vehicles whose engine power does not exceed 50 kW, transition to gas turbine engines would lead to a substantial reduction in fuel consumption (more than 20%), and for heavy vehicles whose engine power does not exceed 50 kW transition to gas turbine engines would lead to a less substantial, but still significant (more than 10%) reduction in fuel consumption.