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| Water Powered car; Anyone heard of this? | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Aug 13 2011, 09:26 PM (3,048 Views) | |
| Jezza | Aug 16 2011, 05:58 AM Post #31 |
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Boost Junkie
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Isnt BMW doing some heavy research into using hydrogen in their cars?? |
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| KY Metro | Aug 16 2011, 07:19 AM Post #32 |
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Member
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Nerys, Now that I have your interest, let's look at the practical side of woodgas. You have to get wood (lots of it), season it, chop it, keep it as dry as possible. Are you able to do that? Is smoke allowed where you live? In order to burn it in a car you will have to design and build a gasifier, which is lots of cutting/grinding/welding. Access to scrap metal is a plus. There are some plans out there but they are not state of the art. To get the good stuff you have to be accepted by the woodgas community, which is not quite as open as the GMF. Since we are now "outside the box" you have to learn exactly how the process works - it's going to break, and you will have to fix it. There are no repair manuals. You have left the beaten path. The community will support you though, and there is no problem that can't be solved. Over one million vehicles ran on woodgas in Europe sixty years ago, many of them homemade units. It can be done much easier today. If you are still interested in woodgas, PM me and I can give you some reading material. Sorry for hijacking the thread, guys.
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| nerys | Aug 16 2011, 09:32 AM Post #33 |
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Grr
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woodie. remember the REASON the leaf is so expensive is two fold. First its not a "SIMPLE" car. think geo metro simple. its intentionally (and by some need) a very very complex car. this means expensive. Second it uses Lithium battery tech. IE very expensive VERY short lived (compared to NIMH) and the "SUPPORT EQUIPMENT" to make lithium work is also Extremely complex and expensive. The problem is nissan CAN NOT use NIMH and probably would not want to even if they could (they are not stupid they want record profits too) why do you think they killed the geo metro? not enough profit. same reason they killed the idea of a cheap electric car. the tech is HERE. they "refuse" by business decision and decree to use it because they deem it too dangerous to their profit margins. KY Metro. PM on the way. |
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| Sporty10 | Aug 16 2011, 10:14 AM Post #34 |
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Sci-Fi Guy
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Another technology in this same vein I don't trust is pumpable electrons type batteries that some are developing: http://seekingalpha.com/news-article/1454040-gasoline-diesel-or-pumpable-electrons Basically you'd fill up your batteries at filling stations with a new fully-charged electrolytes. The reason I don't like it is, as Nerys has said, is control. Companies want to have you keep coming back and giving them money. |
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| nerys | Aug 16 2011, 03:22 PM Post #35 |
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Grr
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actually pumpable is ok with me as long as its ALSO home rechargeable by plugging in. IN FACT that is the best of both worlds !! you can recharge instantly at a premium price at a "gas station" but you can also charge at home IE YOU RETAIN CONTROL. got any more info on this tech? I get bad gateway with that link. |
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| term122 | Aug 16 2011, 08:08 PM Post #36 |
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Bant
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Yes, it takes some energy to turn the potential energy stored in the oil to a useable form of gas. It is still by far economical to use gas as a fuel source. It is not economical to use water. |
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| term122 | Aug 16 2011, 08:25 PM Post #37 |
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Bant
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As for wood as a fuel source, it's dirty and not feasible on a large scale unless you want to cut down the rest of the amazon lol. |
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| nerys | Aug 16 2011, 11:29 PM Post #38 |
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Grr
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Actually SO MUCH energy goes into gas dirt to tank that our national electrical usage would actually go "DOWN" with a switch to electric cars. no joke. 1/3 of the electrical potential is used JUST shipping it by boat to us. |
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| KY Metro | Aug 17 2011, 07:19 AM Post #39 |
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Member
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Who said anything about a large scale? I don't intend to save the world from itself, that's foolish. Oh, it's dirty alright. There's wood to chop, and ash bins to empty, and filters to clean. Run a brush through the system now and then. Wow. Much better to ship dino juice halfway round the world (don't spill any!) process it at spic-n-span refineries (hold your nose), then ship it in diesel trucks (no smoke there!) to filling stations across the country (hope the underground tank is solid), to be pumped into your car. What a system. |
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| nerys | Aug 17 2011, 02:51 PM Post #40 |
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Grr
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but it makes SOOO MUCH MONEY !!! :-( |
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| Jezza | Aug 18 2011, 01:21 AM Post #41 |
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Boost Junkie
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Really?? So if everyone in a community (for argument sake) were to switch to electric cars (having to recharge them nightly) that would lessen the community's electric footprint?? Wow!
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| nerys | Aug 18 2011, 07:39 AM Post #42 |
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Grr
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That is not what I said Jezza. I said NATIONALLY but more importantly GLOBALLY. so imagine if we have a POWER METER that would measure the electrical usage of the whole planet. Take a reading while on gasoline and take a reason while on electric cars and the second reading will be LOWER. most people do not realize we use a TON of electricity "IN ORDER TO USE" gasoline. the individuals electrical usage would of course go UP but our NATIONAL usage would go down because we would no longer be using energy (electricity) to find drill process crack pump distribute gasoline or make the trucks to do so or operate the trucks to do so. Everything from the electric pumps to move the gas to the lights in the building of the advertisers advertising the gas to the offices of exxon etc.. all that would go down or go away completely. the sum total electrical power used (DIRT TO TANK) to process our gasoline is GREATER than the sum total power that would be used DIRT TO TANK to run our electric cars. Gasoline is about 2% efficient at most if your lucky (the 15-18-20% you see floating around is how much of that "2%" is converted to heat and how much of it your able to use mechanically) ie 20% of 2%. while an electric car is typically around 90% efficient "Grid to Wheels" I don't count electrical generation losses since THEY BOTH use grid power so THEY BOTH have those losses in play. ie you can say what about grid losses but then I just say ok what about your grid losses. IE its a wash. this means if you put 100 watts INTO your electric car you convert 90+ of those watts to actual mechanical work at your wheels. Edited by nerys, Aug 18 2011, 07:44 AM.
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| Jezza | Aug 18 2011, 08:08 AM Post #43 |
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Boost Junkie
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Nerys reread my post. I was just putting forward a scaled hypothetical situation ergo the "(for argument's sake)" All I know is SOMETHING has to power our cars whether its electricity or gas. Electricity has to be generated from somewhere/something ... and oil is probably the most used fuel in doing so worldwide. So you are still in big oil's pocket sadly ... |
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