PeteMorris Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 Surely the energy costs of separating the hydrogen and oxygen (from being in such a stable molecule as water) and then separating the gasses and storing them in order for them to be used again will outweigh the energy gained by allowing them to become water again, which is what in effect burning the hydrogen does? It's one thing taking a tank of hydrogen and running a car on it and another completely trying to include the hydrogen generating machinery within the car to separate the hydrogen out from water all within the same system. When I said 'fresh air' it was a catch-all thing. What I mean is some sort of alternative. We know you can run a car on chip fat oil, chicken poo and probably lots of other things. All I'm saying is that oil / petrol cannot be the only thing, and until it becomes a neccesity to find an alternative there's no incentive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grinder Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 Vehicle powered by water, eh. I think I remember this one, wasn't it called a steam engine ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeteMorris Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 Vehicle powered by water, eh. I think I remember this one, wasn't it called a steam engine ? Naaaaa..that's powered by coal.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kermit103 Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 http://www.hydrogencarsnow.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
medusa Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 When I said 'fresh air' it was a catch-all thing. What I mean is some sort of alternative. We know you can run a car on chip fat oil, chicken poo and probably lots of other things. All I'm saying is that oil / petrol cannot be the only thing, and until it becomes a neccesity to find an alternative there's no incentive. Ah- that's different to the OP's 'water powered' car. I agree that we need to explore all sorts of alternatives in order to come up with a viable option that's not fossil fuel based before the fossil fuels run out. When diesel engines were first designed they were designed to burn peanut oil but were converted to take diesel because it was cheaper and easier to acquire than peanut oil, so I don't imagine that there would be much redesigning necessary to allow a modern diesel engine to run on peanut oil. I know that people run diesel engines on used chip fat (my family were involved with the pilot plants for biodiesel) but at the moment newer diesel engines do tend to have problems without working on the oil first and without changing the filters horrifically often. This in turn limits the usefulness of the fuel until the engines are designed to use that fuel rather than fossil diesel with all its additives. The other thing that I think will be a really easy redesign is running on ethanol. That can be distilled from almost any vegetable or grain source which has been fermented so should be a very versatile fuel and also should be a really quite small redesign of petrol engine technology. I'm not clever enough to come up with really novel concept of fuel technology though- for that you need someone who has truly innovative thought and I'm not that person. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeteMorris Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 http://www.hydrogencarsnow.com/ Interesting article! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeteMorris Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 Ah- that's different to the OP's 'water powered' car. I agree that we need to explore all sorts of alternatives in order to come up with a viable option that's not fossil fuel based before the fossil fuels run out. When diesel engines were first designed they were designed to burn peanut oil but were converted to take diesel because it was cheaper and easier to acquire than peanut oil, so I don't imagine that there would be much redesigning necessary to allow a modern diesel engine to run on peanut oil. I know that people run diesel engines on used chip fat (my family were involved with the pilot plants for biodiesel) but at the moment newer diesel engines do tend to have problems without working on the oil first and without changing the filters horrifically often. This in turn limits the usefulness of the fuel until the engines are designed to use that fuel rather than fossil diesel with all its additives. The other thing that I think will be a really easy redesign is running on ethanol. That can be distilled from almost any vegetable or grain source which has been fermented so should be a very versatile fuel and also should be a really quite small redesign of petrol engine technology. I'm not clever enough to come up with really novel concept of fuel technology though- for that you need someone who has truly innovative thought and I'm not that person. My Bold: The only problem with that, is actually growing the source product, or rather where to grow it, as opposed to growing stuff to feed the planet. Wasn't there some sort of hooha about growing rape seed at one point? In that the land could be used for crops for food as opposed to oil...I dunno, I seem to remember something about that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
splodgeyAl Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 Why ridiculous? How would you know? Just because you don't know of anything like it, it doesn't mean it's not possible! Imagine someone inventing an engine that can run on fresh air! All that revenue and taxation gone in a flash! Think about it! No need to imagine! http://www.mdi.lu/english/produits.php Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeteMorris Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 No need to imagine! http://www.mdi.lu/english/produits.php Ah!...So I'm not as plank-like as someone suggested earlier!? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sproutbum Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 Have a look at a local company called ITM Power. I can't post a link to their website till I have made 5 posts sorry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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