Green Options

Segway inventor Dean Kamen is developing a hybrid electric scooter that can run on almost anything that burns.

According to the patent, the bike has a small two-piston Stirling engine right under the seat. Though with an engine of that size, it really isn’t going to provide much juice - not much more than 5bhp.

A Stirling engine is based on tech which predates internal combustion engines by almost 100 years. It’s kinda like a steam engine in the sense that it uses external combustion. They use pistons for the crankshaft, but unlike the alternatives they have no valves for no gas ever enters or leaves the cylinders.

A few years ago, retro was all the rage, with car designers and marketing teams recalling American nostalgia for the days when flashly muscle cars were common and gas cost but a strawpenny a gallon. But even back then, there were a few forward thinkers at General Motors who had at least a passing concern for gas mileage and pollutant control. The Stir-Lec 1 was a hybrid-electric car based on an Opel Kadett, with a small petrol motor recharging 14 acid-lead batteries which in turn powered an electric motor that drove the car. Wild stuff, huh?