Diesel Hybrid?

[EroticySteve]

With gas over $3.00 per gallon I'm glad that I've hung on to my motorcycle and not sold it. I spent $12 on gas this weekend and did quite a bit of driving on my motorcycle. I have a big luxury import SUV a fairly new one but it gets 12-13 MPG around town and barely 20 on the highway. I'm not complaining, that's the price you pay for size, weight and an amazing safety record.

However, when gas was in the mid $1.00s It was still a pain in the ass to have to pay for premium. I can afford the price increase, no problem, but that's not the point. A lot of people can't afford the increases and it's frankly not fair.

Unless somethign can be done Volkswagen will be selling a lot of 50mpg Diesel Jettas.

I'm considering a Diesel Jetta for commuting. I hear the dealers are clearing out faster than they can stock them.

[Top_Of_Google_Man]

Lets hope somebody invents a new fuel soon..........

[EroticySteve]

New fuels have been invented. New technologies exist. Better technologies exist. However our oil industry and auto industry purchase these patents, make people rich and ask them to hush up about their discoveries. Big industry, public industry dislikes competition.

[Peaches]

Biodiesel

[EroticySteve]

Biodiesel is a good start. But most Biodiesel is only 5% bio the rest is standard diesel.

Hydrogen is a great technology.

Alcohol, Ethanol is a great fuel, in fact most cars can already run on Ethanol. It is very volatile and may require different storage and delivery methods.

Diesel engines were originally designed to run on Peanut Oil.

I'm sure that they could genetically engineer a superhigh oil yeild plant. I've heard that Hemp is a great plant that could produce enough oil per acre to make it worth it to cultivate it for it's oil and fiber.

[Trev]

Propane is getting bigger and bigger over here in the UK. Plus it's about half the price of diesel and most cars get better mileage using it.

[XxXotic]

i still want to know... if we can make synthetic oil, why can't we make synthetic gas? The oil companies can own the patents and still have the market cornered without having to rely solely on fossil fuels. Synthetic gas would presumably be more expensive too (much like oil) so if anything, they'd make more money and we wouldnt have to change engines or add converters like we would if we went to say natural gas or something.

[EroticySteve]

xxxotic. I'm sure that the technology exists to create a synthetic gasoline alternative.

Many domestic cars are FFV Flexible Fuel Vehicles and can operate on Ethanol as well as gasoline.

Burning non-fossil fuels makes sense environmentally too. There is far less polution.

Propane is used on some municpal fleet vehicles here. I believe NYC has LP gas buses in service.

There are alternatives, however the auto industry and the oil industry don't like to let their monopoly of fossil fuel interest be threatened by better, cleaner and cheaper alternatives.

[Trev]

Originally Posted by EroticySteve

There are alternatives, however the auto industry and the oil industry don't like to let their monopoly of fossil fuel interest be threatened by better, cleaner and cheaper alternatives.

That's it in a nutshell!

Plus it costs money to run an election campaign, no matter where in the world that may be.

[Newton]

I am sure i saw some adverts about 5-10 years ago in the US that showed engines running on their own, with a new technological breakthrough that wasnt oil .. a new liquid that only coated the insides of the engine and allowed it to funtion very well indeed without any problems .. I believe that was purchased by the the oil companies ..

[EroticySteve]

Yeah I remember that stuff. I thought it was a gimmick though because someone like consumer reports did an independent study and didn't find it to do that.

I remember the commercial though, they dumped sand in the valvetrain and it kept going.

[Newton]

That's the one and it looked like good shit, then all of a sudden it vanished mysteriously .. from the technical demonstrations and the data it looked to be revolutionary. It wouldnt surprise me if they decided to buy this out.

[helix]

Greasel

[Dravyk]

Originally Posted by helix

Greasel

And the great thing is you can pull into the McDonald's drive thru, order some fries for both you and your car!

[Newton]

That could well be it, thanks Helix trying to remember it was years ago ...

[Rolo]

Today scientists will announced a new way to store hydrogen in form of the "hydrogen pill"... the revolutionary about this pill is that its a way to store hydrogen WTHOUT loosing energy in the process AND its very cheap to produce + its stable (you could have them in your pocket without fearing for your life ;-))) - this might be what we have been waiting for, since the problem with hydrogen have been how to keep a positive EROI and ROI.

There will be press conferences in Chicago, Newcastle and Denmark later today...

[Trev]

Originally Posted by Rolo

Today scientists will announced a new way to store hydrogen in form of the "hydrogen pill"... the revolutionary about this pill is that its a way to store hydrogen WTHOUT loosing energy in the process AND its very cheap to produce + its stable (you could have them in your pocket without fearing for your life ;-))) - this might be what we have been waiting for, since the problem with hydrogen have been how to keep a positive EROI and ROI.

There will be press conferences in Chicago, Newcastle and Denmark later today...

Newcastle in the UK?

[nlphoto]

Originally Posted by EroticySteve

I've heard that Hemp is a great plant that could produce enough oil per acre to make it worth it to cultivate it for it's oil and fiber.

fukkin great... a car that insists on stopping at 7-11 for chips and salsa... and then forgets which exit to get off at...

[Rolo]

Originally Posted by Trev

Newcastle in the UK?

Hmmm - they might have been referring to Journal of Materials Chemistry, which is published from the UK - not sure if they are located in Newcastle?

http://www.rsc.org/Publishing/Journals/jm/index.asp

Here is the press release...

Science & IT News - 7 September 2005

Hydrogen fuel breakthrough

Against a backdrop of record high oil prices, researchers from a Danish university plan to unveil an invention that makes it easier to use hydrogen as a fuel

Normally, pills are best associated with helping to stave off physical ailments. However, a group of researchers from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) have found a way to use a pill that could cure the world's addiction to petroleum fuels.

The researchers have found a way to store hydrogen in a tabletised form, overcoming one of the biggest problems with using hydrogen: storage.
'The last 20 years, researchers worldwide have tried to find a practical way to store hydrogen. We have found the way,' said Claus Hviid Christensen, professor of chemistry at DTU.

After keeping their project a secret for the past six months while waiting for international patent protection, the researchers plan to publicly reveal their invention at a scientific conference in Chicago, reports national daily Jyllands-Posten.

The DTU team has worked for a year and a half to develop a method to store hydrogen, a lighter-than-air, inflammable gas, in a compact, solid form.
'Before, the amount of hydrogen needed to fuel a passenger vehicle for 500km occupied the same space as nine passenger vehicles. With our pill, the same amount of energy can be contained in a normal 50 litre tank,' said Christensen.

Other hydrogen fuel experts said that the innovation was nothing short of a breakthrough.

'Not least because the hydrogen pill doesn't lose energy when it is used,' said Andreas Züttel, a professor of physics with Fribourg University in Switzerland.

And here is how they look like - hydro pills

[EroticySteve]

I was reading an ad in GQ today for the Honda Accord Hybrid. 27 City 37 Highway. Not bad for a practical car that doesn't look bad.

I'm not sold on the Toyota Prius. It's frugal but it's downright sickly looking. That team of designers was given far too much creative license. However, the new Prius is an improvement over the first generation.

[Cleo]

My commute to and from work each day still costs me the same.

[Trev]

Originally Posted by Rolo

Hmmm - they might have been referring to Journal of Materials Chemistry, which is published from the UK - not sure if they are located in Newcastle?

http://www.rsc.org/Publishing/Journals/jm/index.asp

Here is the press release...



And here is how they look like - hydro pills

This is an excellent breakthrough, the oil companies will be all over this trying to quash it. A never ending fuel source would kill them.

And the RSC are located in London and Cambridge.

[Rolo]

Well, its only a transporter/carrier/storage for energy... we still need to produce the energy, but thats the great thing about this hydrogen pill - its now possible to produce renewable energy, such as energy from windmills, wave energy devices, solar panels etc. and then use it a later time...

ex. if they made an ocean windmill that could store the energy directly into this technology, then they would have all the things needed for a energy producing "monster"... free energy from the wind, free hydrogen (H2O - splitting ocean water into hydrogen and oxygen via electrolysis) + free salt from the ocean (one of the main components in the pill). The EROI would be very positiv, we could use the energy, whenever we need it and polution will be almost nothing compared with many fossil fuels today.

Not sure, if it can compete with oil (production cost for oil is $2-$10 per barrel, which makes you wonder how oil can become so expensive in no time)... but if we want to lower the CO2 pollution, make us less depended on oil + create millions of new jobs in the western world, then this is positive step forward...

If politicians want it, then I´m willing to bet that in 5 years from now, there will be cell phones, laptops, cams etc. that will only use hydrogen for power, and that in 10 years from now hydrogen cars will become normal in large cities.

[Trev]

I wonder if anyone is still working on perpetual motion.

[Dravyk]

Originally Posted by Trev

I wonder if anyone is still working on perpetual motion.

Naw, a pendulum inside a car just won't work.

[Vick]

Originally Posted by Trev

I wonder if anyone is still working on perpetual motion.

Kinky Bastard

Let's leave that to the 17 years olds who just discovered sex

[Trev]

Originally Posted by Dravyk

Naw, a pendulum inside a car just won't work.

It works in my clock

[Trev]

Originally Posted by Vick

Kinky Bastard

Let's leave that to the 17 years olds who just discovered sex

17 year olds are legal in the UK