Electric Cars

[Heyoka]

I've spent the last 30 minutes looking for a video I found demonstrating a new ultracapcitor that was recently discovered.

It actually wasn't intended to be a capacitor initially and was apart of some research...$#@! I wish I could remember the details.

Basically it's rapid discharge/charge with constant voltage that is translatable to current electrical equipment. I'm pretty sure it was based on some carbon-matrix thingy. It is also easy to make and can be scaled to mass production. The compounds are cheap as well.

It may be the kind of discovery that allows Electric cars to be environmentally friendly, and infra-structurally feasible.

Either way, the world needs to lose its dependency on fossil fuels and work for a more effective, less hazardous energy source. Demanding progress is necessary if you ask me.

EDIT: GOD DAMN IT RAVEN!

[germloucks]

There are 2 main environmental concerns with all vehicles.

1) Pollution from creation and decomposition of vehicle.

2) Pollution in creation of energy to power/operate vehicle.



My reply is that yes, these are problems. Its absolutely correct that electric vehicles create very comparable amounts of pollution. However the conclusion isn't that we throw the baby out with the bath-water. The limitations here are technological and political. The former is being overcome at dramatically increasing speeds, and the latter is powerless to stop it (in the long-term.)

Electric is the future, hands down. We need to end this dumb debate about fossil fuels vs electric. Its over! If we were smart, we would invest in a new flexible electric transportation infrastructure. The sooner the better.

EDIT: The larger point i think i missed is that technology is increasing almost exponentially and our ability to produce clean power from a variety of fuel sources is increasing as well. Im not putting all my eggs in the Fusion power basket, there is clear and consistent progress on a whole variety of power production fronts. From biological sources, wind, solar, tidal and others. Fusion, i think, is about 15-20 years away and will largely end debate on this once and for all. The science of fusion power is indisputable and our technology is just about there.

In my view, i just dont see where the debate is. The only real question is how long do we have to finally develop the technology that gives us our independence from oil before it runs out.

[fuzzylunkin1]

I'm drunk.

$#@! electrons.

Good night.

[dusanc]

At current rate will use up our oil, coal and natural gas in next 100yrs, so a move from fossil to electric is imminent, just a matter of time.

Ofc that chemical energy sources (batteries) are not as green as supercaps, but we really have to get over the energy density problem, like gasoline vs supercap today is around 700:1 for energy delivered to the wheel.
Today they can be used in public transportation (buses and trains), but personal transport will have to wait a decade or so.

[notjarvis]

QUOTE (MrChaos @ Jan 13 2013, 01:41 AM) Ive got a list of people that Ive met on these forums who I respect and see bits of them I want to graft on myself... sadly not even spelling my words better seems to have took

One of said peeps IMed me a comment and got the stressed out reply from one over opinionated fart joke telling goof ball. Soooo with a jaded eye and a huge wanna be a better person crush I'm going into let's discuss this one mode: Personal Passenger Vehicles that run off electricity... are they a net benefit to reducing the CO2 foot print of modern society

My answer: Not only no but $#@! no
Convince me with light

edit: less epeen

I'd say Modern society no.


I'll be quite open. it was me with the PM, as I'd been to this talk during the week, by Robert Lleweleyn, he of Red Dwarf and Scrapheap challenge fame.

Kryten's point was that

Solar power, wind power all that stuff etc. is the coming thing (and I presume Nuclear is thrown into the mix too.), not right now, but by necessity in the not to long distant future as Hydrocarbons will run out, Electric Cars themselves aren't as @#(! as people thinkElectric cars are the future in medium to long termAt least some of the reports that EVs have a larger carbon footprint appear to be questionable. e.g. this one was clearly bollocks, and was the equivalent of taking a tractor engine as your representative Petrol Vehicle for mpg calculations.

He's not a technical chap, so the talk was more entertaining personal anecdote and other interesting comments about why some media representations are bollox rather than a technical argument.


I've been meaning to look into the details a bit more at some point - as I like the technical detail of stuff.

If you're interested in his position his blog on subject is here

Edit:
I'm not endorsing his position by any means, but I found the talk interesting with the intention to find out more when I had the time.

[IKMK]

QUOTE Saw a recent video with some encouraging info about super-capacitors instead of batteries, they found a new way to make cheap graphene sheets (single layers of graphite [like in a pencil]). These charge much faster than batteries, with similar capacities, and and much cheaper to produce, and are easily biodegradable when you are finished with them.[/quote]
QUOTE I've spent the last 30 minutes looking for a video I found demonstrating a new ultracapcitor that was recently discovered.[/quote]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60o9f48SRbQ

It was posted by BackTrak here:
http://www.freeallegiance.org/forums/index...0&start=240

[lexaal]

Hybrid cars are more efficient, because:
-energy can be feeded back instead of loosing it while braking/driving downhill
-you can run the engine in a very limited range because you can temporaly store power in the batteries. --> you can increase or decrease the engine load to be in a very efficient setpoint

Electic cars are more efficient because the combination of
-higher effieciency in powerplants
-partial CO2 free enrgy production (solar,water power...)
-low losses of electrical engines in a wide operating range
-possibility to use batteries of electrical in combination with smart grids to minimize losses during electrical energy generation even more

Also many benefits of hybrid and electric cars are not measured in mpg-values, since FTP75 or NEDC have no "downhill phases" etc.

[Adept]

QUOTE (lexaal @ Jan 13 2013, 04:04 PM) Electic cars are more efficient because the combination of
-higher effieciency in powerplants
-partial CO2 free enrgy production (solar,water power...)

This

[Raveen]

Well, I'm going to come out and say that I don't think that electric cars are the way forwards. yes I'm an environmentalist and no I'm not insane.

The thing about petrol is that it's an ideal fuel. Good energy density, quick to refuel, not so reactive that it explodes your vehicle as soon as you look funny at it. The problem is pollution, which is getting better but it's still an issue.

The CO2 issue is easy to fix by using synthetic, renewable petrols. Yes there are issues with growing biofuels but I rather suspect that as oil prices inevitably rise then more and more methods of synthetic fuel production will become economic. I'm no expert there though but it seems reasonable.

The pollution problem I'm talking about is smog, particularly in conurbations. China for instance has large problems with city wide smogs caused at least partially by traffic. IMO the solution in those situations is mass transit rather than cleaner vehicles because there are so many other problems caused by that volume of traffic.

All in all I think we're all going to have to get used to more expensive motoring but I honestly don't believe that there's a viable alternative to hydrocarbons on the horizon.

[Heyoka]

I don't understand why people seem to think that Hydrogen Fuel Cells = Bomb.