Posted: 4/2/2007 5:27:46 PM EDT
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Internal Combustion Engine thermal efficiency. Only about 20% of the energy in a gallon of gasoline is transformed into work. The rest is waste heat that exits through the radiator and out the tailpipe. I've posted before that the challenge in adopting a new method of automotive propulsion is at this point primarily economic and educational. Adopting a new system is expensive, and it requires that all the drivers relearn everything they thought they knew previously. It also requires that everybody with the new system become expert test drivers and troubleshooters. Car prices are going to go up, way up. People are going to have to be VERY tolerant of vehicles which probably won't be 1/10th as reliable as what they're used to. Okay, I understand that. Q1: Why has the bulk of the mainstream debate been about how we can tax and regulate the auto and oil companies into giving up the goods? I started collecting articles about engine and energy technology two years ago, before I ever started tech school. Tech school has really opened my eyes to what kind of desperate technological and engineering solutions that popped up during World War II, and in the civilian boom that followed. Power Recovery Turbines, etc. The magazines have profiled new stuff like BMW's idea for a heat exchanger around the tailpipe, which heats water into steam, which drives a turbine, which is connected to the crankshaft. The illegitimate love child of the PRT and carb heat. Q2: Why are the American people so willingly ignorant that they volunutarily refuse to learn about the technology that's come before, so they can be fooled into not correctly understanding our actual level of technological development (thinking that anything currently being discussed is actually new)? |
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The problem is usually that people don't see the big picture. They live in the "right now" and can't fathom the economic benefits of becoming less reliant on oil as our primary energy source. If you say "it'll be more expensive at first, but in the long term it'll be cheaper" they hear everything up to expensive and the rest gets tuned out because they want nothing to do with anything that will take more out of their wallets. The automobile companies, i forced by the government, to "come up with a better alternative" means they will take all the expenses of R&D and roll them into the price of the current cars they make... which will, ironically, make things more expensive, but people won't see it as anything more than "inflation". The government, well if you want to get tin-foiled up, won't touch anything that could reduce our need for oil because it would mean our interests in the middle east would decrease, which would mean our need for big military would increase which would mean cutting expensive programs that politicians have invested in and given to their contractor buddies, etc. I suspect as the technology for better batteries comes along hybrid vehicles will become far more effective and in turn will probably start becoming more mainstream. Beyond that I think anything real revolutionary is a long way off. |
A1 - Thats the power regulators have. It also plays well with a segment of American who believe they're being screwed by one or the other - a attitude which eliminates the individual requirement for conservation and the discomfort it might entail. Bluntly, many want oil cheaper, as demand builds and supply slows. Entitlement mentality. A2 - Give an example, not sure I get your issue - Why dont they get the tech behind Smokey Yunicks hot Vapor Injection or HCCI? The public doesn't want to be bothered - see above. In general, we've got the best populous in the world - but in many ways - we is spoilt. I still like Amory Lovin's (RMI) approach - there money to be made in conservation, lets lead entrepreneurs to it. Efficiency offsets have worked for the major util companies over the 20 years - it'll work for the transport economy as well. Like we have a choice - which is why the market will fix the issue - without regard to our conveniences. BTW - Willie didnt have any cash into Apollo Resources did he - down to .05 ? Hope it was a straight royalty deal. Ive always liked Willie -- keeps getting a shit sandwich tho. McLaughlins a tool. Luck Alac ETA - wont be the batts, just cant do it. Lighten the car - it advances efficiencies of every other system. "A modern car's engine, idling, driveline, and accessories dissipate seven-eighths of its fuel energy. Only one-eighth reaches the wheels. Of that, half heats the tires and road or heats the air that the car pushes aside. Only the last 6 percent accelerates the car (then heats the brakes when you stop). And since about 95 percent of the mass being accelerated is the car, not the driver, less than 1 percent of the fuel energy ultimately moves the driver—unimpressive, considering it is the fruit of 120 years of engineering effort. Happily, three-fourths of a car's propulsive energy need is caused by its weight, and every unit of energy saved at the wheels saves another seven units we don't need to waste on the way to the wheels. Thus, making cars that are radically lighter weight has huge fuel-saving leverage." Rest here - Reinventing the Wheels |
I have a hard time understanding why there is not something on everything but entry level cars to recover the energy from the tailpipe and/or radiator. Everybody is demanding, but nobody knows what to demand from the car companies. I haven't been paying attention to what Willie's been doing lately. I'm out of the loop. |
Is THAT the real problem? |
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If its not cost effective then theres no incentive to the market - so who foots the subsidy? Theres plenty of innovation (hybrids have become mainstream) - but until theres more energy costs to offset, innovation has to be relatively cheap. Dont worry - as oil price increase, the incentive for efficiency - and alternative oil process, oil shale/tar sands/CTL - (hell Rentech is floating a pilot CTL plant already - at a reported conversion cost of $25 a barrel - which Im not sure I beleive) - will increase as well. It just too cheap ATM. But the stuff will still be there, ready when its cost feasible. Luck Alac |