An idea to solve our oil problems.

[magmanl337]

Pyro and I have already both stated it and it needs stated again. The movement of the car cannot be used to create enough energy to sustain movement - it takes more energy to create energy then what is gained. IE more energy to get to speed to allow the "wind" energy to create power. While ideas such as regenerative braking do create some energy it takes far more energy to get there then is created by the systems. Regenerative braking is only useful because braking is a waste of energy anyways. Overcome this base fact of physics and you have created a perpetual motion machine, which is not within the forseeable future.

I know, and I may be jumping into another discussion, but I never said in the original post that this car would be able to sustain motion. The fan/turbine would just assist in the air compressor. The tank of air would still run out, and have to be refilled eventually (probably more frequently than a gas tank.)

[AcemanPB]

Well this air compressor would have to be run off gas or electricty.

If you decide to run the compressor off electricty, then you might as well use an electric motor because you'd loose a great deal of power converting electrical energy to compressed gas and then converting that to kinectic energy.

If you decide to run the compressor of gas you're in the same boat, no reason to have a combustion engine compress air and then turn around and use that air to run the car. Just use the combustion engine to power the car from the start...

Basically what you're doing is just adding another step to the whole process of moving a car, this extra process would drastically reduce the efficency.

[gimp]

Tell that to the folks at Chernobyl...well, what's left of them.

I am not anti-nuclear, far from it...I do think we need more plants...just don't fool yourself in to thinking it's completely safe.

I understand that it has the potential to be very dangerous. Phil put it nicely. The reactor at Chernobyl was a bad design. Modern pressurized water reactors are much safer, you really have to try to have an incident. Chernobyl, Three mile island and SL-1 were all the results of bad designs and human error.

In todays nuclear plants, safety is the number one concern. It seems silly sometimes when you think about all the controls in place that keep it safe. I work on nuclear reactors, and I'm exposed to this environment every day. Reactor safety is my job. I feel more safe at work than I do almost anywhere else because I know how strict we are when it comes to reactor safety.

People just don't understand much about nuclear plants. For example, pilots get more exposure to radiation than I do because they're that much closer to the sun. I could chow down on bananas and deer meat and set of the alarms at work.

[PyRo]

I understand the concept of crop rotation. Is their really enough room to grow enough corn to power all the vehicles in the U.S. If you did you've only solved a small percentage of the problem.
What about home heating?
What about aircraft?
What about trains?
What about the military I bet the U.S. troops in Iraq burn as much fuel in a day as every car on the road in America does. Tanks, planes, Humvees, and other military vehicles arn't known for their economy.
That about trucks that require more power then ethanol can produce?


Switching passenger cars to ethanol can probably reduce our oil consumption by 10% or so if you forced all new passenger vehicles to run on ethanol.. Not a huge jump but it is a reduction.
You now have to gain the support of the country for this because no one will willingly make the switch for the same reason hybrids arn't a huge seller only now you have to figure gas is going to be more expensive not less expensive.
The prices of older vehicles will suddenly skyrocket as people buy them up to avoid the new regulations.
The new car industry will suffer.
Washington watching Ford, Crystler, and GM go under will lift the regulations.

[SpitFire1299]

I think they should bring back the big wheel.

[Pacifist_Farmer]

One thing no one has mentioned is:

Say we convert all the corn and vegetable harvests in the US into ethanol to power our huge SUV's, what the heck are all the animals going to eat? Isn't most of the corn grown in the country feed for livestock?

On the side:

I didn't think there was any connection between Stranger and Moon, I could definitely imagine RAH writing Lazarus into the stone gang. I don't remenber Lazarus in Stranger, guess I have to go read it again. Maybe I will finally grok it this time.

[Lohman446]

One thing no one has mentioned is:

Say we convert all the corn and vegetable harvests in the US into ethanol to power our huge SUV's, what the heck are all the animals going to eat? Isn't most of the corn grown in the country feed for livestock?

On the side:

I didn't think there was any connection between Stranger and Moon, I could definitely imagine RAH writing Lazarus into the stone gang. I don't remenber Lazarus in Stranger, guess I have to go read it again. Maybe I will finally grok it this time.

There is a lot of unused and underused in the US

[PyRo]

I think they should bring back the big wheel.

You can't buy big wheels anymore?

[SlartyBartFast]

If that one taught us something it was that we were right not to build any plants like that.

And TMI?

[SlartyBartFast]

Bio-diesel and diesel are completly interchangeable. The only time you need to make changes is when you want to run bio-diesel with less refinement. You could dump a gallon of vegtable oil in with every 5 gallons of gas and not see any problems.

Ethanol, I'll say it again, it can help but it isn't the answer. Ethanol isn't as renewable as everyone thinks it is. Once the soil is depleted it's depleted. We also don't have the capability to produce enough ethanol. Ethanol is also more expensive then gasoline is evern at its current price.

Cheap and easy ways out:

Wow. Are you like the dumbest person in existence or what? The US was defeated in Vietnam, can't get out of Iraq where you're still losing lives and tens of Billions a year, and you're stupid enough to think that declaring war on countries with billions of people and nuclear weapons is going to be easy and cheap. What a moron.

Say we convert all the corn and vegetable harvests in the US into ethanol to power our huge SUV's, what the heck are all the animals going to eat? Isn't most of the corn grown in the country feed for livestock?

[PyRo]

Wow. Are you like the dumbest person in existence or what? The US was defeated in Vietnam, can't get out of Iraq where you're still losing lives and tens of Billions a year, and you're stupid enough to think that declaring war on countries with billions of people and nuclear weapons is going to be easy and cheap. What a moron.

I wasn't saying it seriously. But since you decided to argue.
Could we have wiped Vietnam off the map with nuclear weapons? Sure, we could have massacured the entire population within hours and left the country to rot. Could we have done the same with Iraq? Sure. A few thousand nuclear weapons cost pennies next to what is spend on fuel in a year.

[SpitFire1299]

You can't buy big wheels anymore?

I really havent paid attention..

[MicroMiniMe]

http://www.iags.org/n033104t3.htm

The EPA has already been supporting research and development of this technology.

While electric hybrids add a battery pack, electric generator/motor, and power electronics, hydraulic hybrids add an accumulator (which stores energy as highly compressed nitrogen gas) and one or more hydraulic pump/motors. Full hydraulic hybrid technology means that the conventional transmission and transfer case have been removed and replaced with a hydraulic drivetrain; EPA has also replaced the large gasoline engine with a small diesel engine.

There is no single solution to dropping foreign oil dependance. Its the whole glut of alternative sources.

[Jonneh]

The worlds energy problems can be solved with nuclear power, and possibly even moreso later with the development of fusion reactors. This also has the nice side effect of having a much reduced impact on the environment?

What do we do with the waste? bury it in a big hole miles underground and leave it there.

I'm good at solving things.

[PyRo]

What do we do with the waste?

Send it to Jersey with the rest of our trash?