Death of the gasoline powered car?

  • Thread starter Thread starter drifter7
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Yeah, you hve to keep pumping it with electricity. What I'm saying is that once it starts, the electricity will come through the engine (connect a rod to the engine, magnets around it, done) or similar.

So it actually WOULD be able to generate its own hydrogen, just that you would need to refuel with water once in a while.

Although there's the problem of HOW MUCH water. You would probably need to pressurize the water.
 
1) You cannot produce the hydrogen from water, convert it back into water and expect to obtain a positive net energy. Enery will be lost due to the 2nd law of thermoodynamics as net entropy (or disorder) of the sytem will always increase. The temperature of the water coming out of this engine will be higher than the temperture of the water going in, and theat will be a continual loss of energy. What you are basically proposing is a perpetual motion machine, which 100's of years of research has shown cannot exist.

2) What you are proposing is similar to te idea of a semeipermeable membrane that forces electorns to travel around a circuit and do work in order to combine with oxygen and power the vehicle. However, the hydrogen must already be seperated in a differnet ocation in order for this process to be energy efficicent.

3) The main problem that I see with electric cars is the lack of throttle response. In a gasoline powered car, throttle response is instant. Membranes and chemical reaction don't work that way, and it will kill your trottle response.
 
They wouldn't just stop the production of gasoline powered cars just like that. That would basically mean that you couldn't use your car anymore. Gas prices would most likely raise for gas stations wouldn't be making any money, and many would probably close down. It would probably just cause so much confusion. I think it's just the best as it is. Let's just let all the gasoline run out in the world and we'll let the other lifetimes deal with it. :) jk
 
Did any one see a article in Hot Rod mag 2-3 years ago, regarding heads that you can retrofit to 3800 V6 and 454 V8 engines that use infintie variable valve lift to throttle the engine? (Kind of like what BMW has on one of it's V8's, but without electronics). The heads had internal passages that preheated the gas by circulating it around the exhaust valves, and then injected it into cylinder form the intake seats (so that less lift=less fuel). The preheating led to increased fuel efficiency of about 20% as I recall.
 
You can use electrical energy to separate water into hydrogen and oxygen. That doesn't generate electrical power but instead uses it up.

You can then recombine the hydrogen and oxygen in a fuel cell to make electrical energy. The amount you make will ALWAYS be LESS than the amount you initially put in to make the hydrogen due to the laws of thermodynamics like skip said.

Remember that when gasoline powered cars first came out people scoffed and said it would never work, after all who would want to use gasoline when you have a perfectly good horse right?

Just give it time, things will advance. As for the thought of cars exploding due to hydrogen in the feul tanks, do you honestly think the government would allow that? It would exist in a stable form then be converted as necessary for use. You can't honestly expect us to use fossil feuls forever.
 
I like the new Ion engines that NASA is currently working on. They solve the problem of engines running when you don't neen them, like when deccelerating or when stopped at a street light. Engine on for accelerating, engine off for everything else. I would like to see someone try to make them fit and work in a car. One guy has a plane coming out with this engine design.
 
Originally posted by retsmah
Electrolysis is not a process you "start" with electricity, it has to be run with electricity, meaning that if you want electrolysis to happen you have to keep pumping in electricity.
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Thank you Captain Obvious. I know how electrolysis works, thank you very much. I know that the system can't be 100% efficient, but I can get it pretty darn close. This system isn't trying to be 100% efficient; that's not the point. The point I'm trying to make is that you can use water to generate fuel that will be more efficient than gasoline. If I can get it to work as a completely efficient system, then I'll be ecstatic, otherwise, I'll still be happy.
 
Originally posted by VipFREAK
I think it's a valid steretype, but yes maybe leave out the black part because no matter what the person is they all have that same damn black escalade with dub style rims, some with those retarded spinners. I like a suv with the prop on the back though, that's funny. Some older style Escalades try to get in the act to by changing their rims like the new ones too. That's always cool. :rolleyes:
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i find that very offensive as im black and i know no one personally who owns escalades......thats not very nice of you.
 
Originally posted by skylineGTR_guy
Got any links to this ion engine thingy?
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The first link is the new Ion engine, which is only being used for spacecraft right now, but one guy is building one for general aircraft. He claims it will use a lot less money to operate and run. He said he can build one that will use 70% less money for fuel costs.

The second link was the old "LIGHTCRAFT" engines that were supposed to have altered how humans travel in every aspect. Cars, trains, planes, etc... The development of the Lightcraft engines led to the development of the Ion engines.

NASA's Ion Engine Runs for Nearly 5 Years: No Problems | SpaceRef - Your Space Reference
Address:http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=12209

Rensselaer.MAG/March '99- At Rensselaer
Address:http://www.rpi.edu/dept/NewsComm/Magazine/March99/atrenss_soe2.html Changed:8:44 AM on Friday, July 11, 2003
 
Originally posted by Jpec07
The point I'm trying to make is that you can use water to generate fuel that will be more efficient than gasoline.
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If you are seriously going to try to build a hydrogen engine, you should take a look at how Ford changed their 2.3l four cylinder into a hydrogen engine, if you haven't seen it already. They used a supercharger on it, they got almost the same amount of power out of the engine and better fuel mileage.

I think the main problem you would run into is that a hydrogen engine has to be tuned differently than a gasoline engine to get the kind of results you want, and from what I've seen it's looking like they will need to be forced induction sorts of engines.
 
Originally posted by retsmah
If you are seriously going to try to build a hydrogen engine, you should take a look at how Ford changed their 2.3l four cylinder into a hydrogen engine, if you haven't seen it already. They used a supercharger on it, they got almost the same amount of power out of the engine and better fuel mileage.
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I don't think they put much effort into that thing (based on what you're saying here...). I would say that if you could get it to work correctly it would be alot more efficient than gasoline. Also, one of the major problems I think they had was the mixture of hydrogen and oxygen (seeing as how they have to be perfectly mixed to achieve optimum efficiency). If they just ran hydrogen into the engine with normal air induction, then it's no wonder they were having a problem. My idea is to have the mixture of hydrogen and oxygen run into the engine (it's perfect for creating the biggest boom of the bunch). Besides, I've been working on this in my mind for 3+ years with alot of other peoples' input consistently boosting the process. Forced induction would be necessary, but I'm sure a device can be added to the timing mechanism that will allow for that kind of thing (I also have a few ideas for keeping the mix of hydrogen and oxygen stable on the trip to the combustion chambers). You'll see in a year or two when it's done. I'll post pictures, results, etc.
 

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