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Any enthusiasms? Energy is an interesting topic. My day dream is a way of providing an electrified rail in the middle of ordinary roads for electric cars. Electricity is the equivalent of 25 cents a litre gasoline at the axle. The rail would have to embedded for safety. Here come the electric SUVs.

   

I don't really think we'll need a third rail system considering the research on batteries that's going on. Pretty soon there will be batteries that will allow long distance travel.

   

Hybrid car technology is advancing fast..

   

The funny thing about hybrids is that back in the 90's when I bought my first Chevy sprint I was getting the same mpg that hybrids get today. There has to be a better way.

   

your chevy sprint didnt come with the same safety features that are available today and are now almost mandatory..adding a lot of weight to comparable size cars.


Give me a diesel hybrid Corolla, filling up would be a once a month event at the most.

   

Batteries are pretty standard science. There isn't much new in batteries. Maybe the nickle metal hydrid. Also there isn't enough nickle to support the 21st century appetite for batteries. So, an electrified rail.

   

Hydrogen. Once we can get that perfected, we won't need oil

   

Noooooo. For one a tank of hydrogen has no where near the energy as a tank of natural gas. It's inconveniently bulky. Too bulky for tractor trailers. Secondly wiring the roads or rail roads avoids the inefficiency of the internal combustion engine - 25% at best. You need that much less electricity. Thirdly hydrogen combines with metals to form hydrids so it's difficult to engineer.

   

Safety features, maybe. The technology is getting a lot better, but instead of mileage going down, HP has been going up. Even a prius has a gas engine one and a half times bigger than the Chevy sprint.

Diesel hybrid Corolla would be cool. I'm still waiting for somebody to offer a diesel compact truck. B2000, Tacoma, Colorado diesel would be just what I need.

   

That's why we have research. I see hydrogen as a long term investment. I mean they already started, so why not see where it can go, plus that electricity needs to come from somewhere, and if people don't want to build a few nuclear power plants...we're screwed.

   

You and me both, I'd love to have a little diesel pickup.

   

Hopefully I can provide some insight on this matter. The high oil prices are great for promoting alternatives. I see some ideas have been presented here. I wouldn't mind going through the technical and economic limitations myself.

Electrified Rail

This would be great because you only have to worry about the passenger comforts. No engine to maintain or anything. Certaintly would be great, but there is a problem. Consider its closest relative, the monorail. It is very expensive to set up. To have it, you would have to have a system controlling every car, taking away the drivers freedom. You also have to consider the magnitude of such an operation. You would have to put rail everywhere, all the way up to the driveway. A small storage system could eliminate that issue, but how much would be acceptible? Athstetically, would it be pleasing? What are the chances of some kid trying to use the rail as a swing an electrocuting himself? It takes away the biggest problem in alternative vehicles but has alot of expensive drawbacks.

Hybrid Car

An interesting technology to emerge from gas cars. This has boosted fuel efficiencies for cars in cities. If one lives in the city and has alot of stop and go driving, this is the choice for you. However, if you live long distances away with little stopping, then this technology does nothing. Any extra fuel economy comes from the aerodynamics and gas engine efficiency. By taking out the hybrid system, you would have a cheaper vehicle with mostly the same benifits. Another problem comes from the batteries, which are heavy and expensive. This pushes the price out of the reach of most consumers, unless there is government assistance.

Hydrogen Car

This always seems to be the future car that everyone is going to drive. Hyrdogen is clean and the only emission is water. It has a comparable energy density to gas(in fact, it's better). Who could hate this? Well, right now, I could. The fuel cell(the engine) is very, very, very expensive and noisy(it has improved). The hydrogen itself is not a fuel source. Unlike oil, you can't drill for it. It has to be extracted from some source. To achieve a positive energy gain, you would have to get it from natural gas, but you still get CO2 from extraction and less energy than you would if you burned the natural gas itself. You can get it from water, but you have to get it from a power plant. This is both good and bad because electricity from the grid is cheaper than gas. However, if you are getting energy from a fossil fuel plant, you are polluting just as much. But the green alternitive exists though.

Electric Car

Same benifits as an hydrogen car. So long as you have a clean energy source. However, battery technology is very limited. You won't get very far with one. The cost of the batteries is once again a problem.

So what is the really big problem stopping alternates?

Batteries. There needs to be a better way to store the energy. The problem. Current technolgies for batteries has hit its limits. There is only so many electrons an atom can transfer or gain. We won't get the battery we need with this technology with this. Basically, we need a system capable of producing a constant voltage. This requires some sort of mechanism to transfer electrons. The funny thing is that fuel cells is battery-like. The only diffence is that only 1 of the 3 chemicals is stored in the vehicle(hydrogen). If you would contain the other two, you would have a battery. Perhaps my senior design project could be over this...

   

You say that Hydrgen has a compareable energy density to methane. I always thought that it didn't, rather a barbeque tank of hydrogen would only be good for a very short drive. The CH4 combines with more O2 than H2.

   

We need oil to generate hydrogen. That's why oil companies are so in favour of hydrogen fuel cells.

   

The problem with hybrid cars is that they're built backwards. Instead of using the battery until it needs to be charged and then generating more electricity to recharge the battery with gasoline, they use gasoline first and only turn on the electricity while idling.

The Chevy Volt is, so far, the only car in development that does it right way around so that very little gas is used, and is only used to increase the range of the car when needed. If you only use gas to charge the battery, most people driving in cities will rarely need to fill their gas tank and get extremely good mileage from it. Demand will go down, and so will the price of gas. The mileage you'd get from a car like this with mostly city useage would make gas seem pretty much free.

   

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