Posted on 08/12/2006 11:19:00 AM PDT by 1-Eagle
First of all... there is already coming soon a fully electric (non-hybrid) automobile that can do 0-60 in 4 seconds. You can see a preview of that and some FAQ at the www.testlamotors.com website. They don't have pricing on the unit and they are not available for sale, yet.
Now, they are talking about plugging this thing in for about three hours to do 250 miles. So the question I posed to them through their website today is... why not install a hydro power unit (uses water for fuel) powering a generator that runs non-stop, 24 hours a day, with a dehydrator that pulls water from the air to feed the hydro (they can pull ALOT of water out... several gallons a day... hopefully enough for most environments) with solar cells to power the hydro. This results in the worlds first self-sufficient automobile that would need nothing but occasional servicing.
Failing that, it might be necessary to plug in the hydro unit to house current overnight, resulting in a semi-selfsufficient unit, but probably alot cheaper due to less power needed than plugging in a battery recharger unit directly.
Hydro technology is already coming... there is a toy sized car available from one of the researching companies that comes with its own solar powered fueling station. They sell for $40 each. So it is not unrealistic to ask.... if they can do that, then why don't they just make an hydro-electric hybrid instead? If the hydro is used to simply recharge a battery, and it runs 24 hours, then then we should have the technology right now that could stop our dependence on foreign oil!
If I had investors, I'd build the thing and sell it myself! But I am stuck living in and driving a truck for a while yet and our Republic needs this now. So in the spirit of Jefferson and Franklin who gave away some of their best ideas to help the country... heres this one!
> uses water for fuel
huh?
Clarification: Instead of the hydro power technology having to produce alot of power right now, to power a vehicle, it would only need to produce a small or moderate amount of power constantly, thus, making the needed technology simpler and cheaper.
huh? Its called hydro. Its a process that converts water into energy. When the car burns this energy, it is reconverting the fuel back into water, which is the only residue. Come to think of it.. the newly reconverted water could then be fed back into the hydro unit to recycle, thus reducing the amount of water needed to add. The idea is to scrap 'fuel stations' and have the cars producing their own fuel as they go.
They are working on fuel cell technology, but it is super expensive right now.
There can be electric cars that aren't as sporty and might not be quite so fast (0 - 60 in four seconds is kind of fast) that would be cheaper. If you figure in the fact you aren't going to have to ever have to buy gas again, and perhaps a generous tax deduction, I think they can get the actual price of a standard hybrid hydro-electric car down. Mass production will help also. Americans can do it!
One of the firms is already selling a foot long sized toy car with a fueling station ($80 for the pair) and they are making a profit on that. If they can do that, why can't they turn a generator instead of a toy cars wheels with a slightly larger unit, even if it costs $5,000 instead of $80?
What the heck is "hydro power"?
Tesla Motors' car is a very nice implementation of a simple idea: Battery-powered electric car, using Li-ion batteries (the same kind used for notebook computers) to store the electricy.
You plug it in and you have the juice to run the electric car.
Energy-wise, very efficient. The downside is they need 1000 lbs of battery, and at approx $250/kwH or more, its pricey. (.11 KwH/km x 400km = 44 kwH = $11,000 or so for the battery pack alone.)
Li-ion takes about 2,000 recharges, and gets about 250 miles per charge, so needs to be replaced after 500,000 miles.
"Hydro" has nothing to do with it.
All the Hollywood elite should love this as an eco-friendly substitute for the Hummer.
The Tesla Roadster’s "fuel tank" weighs in at about 1,000 pounds and delivers four to five times the energy-density stores of other batteries. Safe, light, durable, and recyclable, it represents the biggest innovation in the Tesla Roadster and is one of the largest and most advanced lithium-ion battery packs in the world... recharge time is impressively quick, enabled by an onboard, high-power charging system... Our motor can operate continuously around 120°C, thanks to the array of air-cooling fins on our aluminum housing... The Tesla Roadster has only two forward gears and either one will work for most of your driving.Basically, it's a larger version of a cellphone battery, which means it charges up fast. Naturally, people using the car in California will just expect their employer to provide an electrical outlet so that the car can be charged on the company nickel, during peak load time for the power grid. Then complain that the price of electricity is too high and brownouts are too often. More airhead ideas courtesy the mentality of the entertainment industry, which expects the working people to be the patrons and pay all the bills.
Enviros should put their money where their mouth is and spend the $100K+ on this non-polluting vehicle.
But they won't because it is you and I that should have to sacrifice, not them. Al Gore better buy one (and this hydro unit) next week.
Also comes in larger sizes
So now it is evident that there are already affordable electric cars available for in-town use (not sure if these are rated for highway.)
In-town driving is most of what we do, except for the long-commuters.
So, now, we just add a small version of the hydro thing on that powers a generator and then you don't even have to plug it in. Maybe it activates itself, just like your Mr. Coffee, at 0500 and starts adding charge to the battery. At the end of the day, you could have it programmed to continue running the generator until battery is 100%.
The projects I have seen.. they are trying to run the car with hydro directly, so the point is they don't have to build rome and push the car with hydro, just a hydro DC generator. It doesn't take a heck of alot of power to turn an alternator. It can be even smaller if its used to run continuously or extended, for the seven to eight hours some electric auto manuals state needed for 100% charge up.
Evidence of your point was that article Drudge posted showing Obama lecturing on gas-guzzling vehicles. He then leaves the meeting in an SUV!
Yep, yep. What I was pushing with this post, though, is the idea that they are going down the wrong road. If they go hybrid, using a hydro (or anything) powered DC generator, you'd never have to plug it in at all.
All the Hollywood elite should love this as an eco-friendly substitute for the Hummer.
The Tesla car was mentioned only as an example of an electric car in existence. I was trying to push the idea of using hydro to run a generator... but then I just found this example of Stan Meyers Hydrocell Dunebuggy (stan_meyers_bb.wmv). Link was from This bulletin board discussing hydrocells.. The post is about mid-way on the page.
The reporter says it will be about two years before Stans hydrocell is mass produced and will cost around $1,500.
How so?
http://waterpoweredcar.com/stanmeyer.html
http://www.automorrow.com/articles/meyers2.html
http://www.waterfuelcell.org/ -- website explains the technology
"running on water" is nonsensical. The water does not contain energy that can be extracted by itself. The energy comes from elsewhere.
Its an "On board Hydrogen Electrolysis" fuel cell. if you know anything about energy conversion technologies, you'd know that it is inherently *less* efficient to do that than to do other forms of energy generation. The energy source is from elsewhere.
"When water is hit with its own molecular resonant frequency, using a system developed by Stan Meyers (USA) and again recently by Xogen Power, Inc., it collapses into Hydrogen and Oxygen gas with very little electrical input. Also, using different electrolytes (additives that make the water conduct electricity better) changes the efficiency of the process dramatically. It is also known that certain geometric structures and surface textures work better than others do. The implication is that unlimited amounts of Hydrogen fuel can be made to drive engines (like in your car) for the cost of water."
What's even more amazing is that people believe this!!!
> hydro thing on that powers a generator
Sir or Madam: are you sane?
> What's even more amazing is that people believe this!!!
Careful - you can hurt your brain arguing with people like this.
This reminds me of a guy I worked with who was all excited about a data compression algorithm. He thought we could keep running the data through the algorithm until the file was really, really small ...
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