Posted on 10/19/2004 12:51:28 PM PDT by NewJerseyJoe
Only for the inclement conditions. Your statement is true for low speed, stop and go driving conditions.
Hook a loaded trailer behind both and then try to compare performance.
Luddite. Have you ever seen a gasoline fire?
"Here's a little experiment for you."
Take a cup and fill it with gas. Spray the cup of gas into a twenty gallon tank. Light a match. Throw match into tank. Watch tank and everthing within twenty feet go BOOM! Happens every time.........
That's great if you want to use it for rototilling ; in ice and snow conditions, you want less torque and a slow inertial phase change.
No vehicle gets the EPA "touted" mileage in actual use, so that's no reason to think that hybrid vehicles are a "poor" choice.
No one's had to replace a Prius battery yet. Even when it's necessary, the Prius pack design is modular so only the weak module will need replacing.
And the $6000 quote is absurd. No one thinks that the cost will be anywhere near even $2000, let alone 6.
In reality, hybrids are better than any other presently available vehicle. They will only be surpassed by hydrogen fuel cell powered vehicles, once those reach market.
The pic was a joke for the most part. I would love to see a clean technology work, and think fuel cells hold a great promise, but this stuff is a long way off from the diesel in my f-350 and the 59 cc engine in my chain saw.
When you can show me a chainsaw with a fuel cell that cuts like my husky or pulls like my diesel, let me know.
Luddite, feh!
What happens if you run out of gas in the middle of Texas and nobody is around for a hundred miles?
Efficiency alone doesn't matter. What matters is capacity, cost, and pollution. If hydrogen can be produced in sufficient volume cheaply and more cleanly than petroleum, then hydrogen wins, even if the efficiency is lower.
Having said that there may be better alternatives in the near term, such as coal liquefaction. Certainly that will not be as efficient either, but at current costs coal liquefaction would be economically feasible. I believe the latest costs are down to about $40/barrel.
I can imagine a high pressure hydrogen tank flying from a car involved in an accident followed by a hydrogen flame. It would be like the 4th of July all the time. But instead of using fireworks, it would be more like mortars.
Gasoline is a lot easier and safer to deal with than high pressure hydrogen.
First off, the "power to charge the batteries" comes from the brakes and onboard gas engine, not any other plant.
Secondly, just how polluting is the construction of your average, non-hybrid vehicle? That's a question the hybrid bashers don't want you to ask.
There's a research site out there somewhere that proposes using solar-electrolyzed hydrogen to create some sort of hydrocarbon fuel. I'll try and dig it up for you. I think you'd find it interesting.
In a car the hydrogen would be much higher pressure and enclosed in a metal can that would act like a rocket IF WHEN damaged.
I have heard that a car running on water has been mutually developed by the French and the Swiss. A work friend of mine who is French (but still a nice guy, even though a lefty) told me about it. He had an article, but it was only in french, and he's off this week, or else I could babelfish it. Has anyone else heard of this?
Here's another experiment. Turn your electric stove on to med-hi, wait for the element to heat up. Then pour the cup of gasoline on the element.
Or how bout this one. Take an electric drill and turn it on and lock the trigger down. Pour the gasoline on that.
My point is that liquid gasoline readily extinguishes a small flame. But vaporized gasoline will ignite with the smallest spark. When liquid gasoline hits a hot engine compartment filled with electrical components, and hot exaust headers, it's probably gonna start a fire.
There are new methods of storing Hydrogen, other than just compressing it to a liquid. One method combines it with a solid, much like acteylene in a welding tank. These methods actually allow higher storage densities which is one of the drawbacks to hydrogen storage.
It takes about 4 times the volume to store the same amount of energy in liquid hydrogen form as it does in gasoline form. But Hydrogen gives about 20% more energy by weight, than gasoline.
And we had to overcome those same kinds of problems with gas tanks as well. The challenge is more difficult, natually, but it's doable. Having said that I'm not wedded to the idea of hydrogen at the consumer end... see my previous post to you...
I have 210,000+ miles on my 1986 Saab Turbo SPG.
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