Alternatives to Hybrid Cars As of right now,there isn't a great deal of incentive to save fuel. Sure,we think there is,but oil companies are always telling us how reserves will last a million years,and hybrid investment doesn't always justify savings. But the day is coming,and very soon,when oil demand in rapidly developing nations like China and India will exceed supply. Billionaire magnate Richard Branson once said of the ensuing economic chaos,that it would make the recent recession look like"a blip on the map."From plastics to medicine,from clothes to food,ours is a world built on oil -- and at some point,we have to stop burning down our own home. Standard Fuels It's a little-known reality that gasoline engine development was in fact underwritten by burgeoning oil tycoon . Rockefeller. At the time,Rockefeller had loads of gasoline byproduct from heating fuel production,and no market for it. . scoured the globe looking for something that would consume massive quantities of his explosive byproduct,and found it in the piston engine. That in itself is pretty strong evidence that the reciprocating piston engine is now and always has been primarily a means to burn through lots of fuel; the fact that it actually manages to convert about 30 to 40 percent of fuel energy into horsepower is more of a happy coincidence than anything else launch x431 pro plus. Granted,diesels can extract upward of 45 to 50 percent of power from the fuel,and really good gas engines can come close to that. But if a guy in your office were only doing 50 percent of what you paid him to do,he'd be fired on his first day at work. Hydrogen If you pass loads of electricity through water,you can split it apart into its component hydrogen and oxygen atoms in a process called electrolysis; recombine those atoms,and you get pure water,and some of that electricity back. The"hydrogen fuel cells"that recombine these atoms act as generators,providing current to recharge the batteries in an electric car. This makes a hydrogen car a form of series hybrid. Hydrogen cars seem like an ideal solution to our energy problems,but closer examination of the process reveals a kind of false economy in the energy net. Electrolysis produces massive amounts of heat; in fact,you wind up losing about a third of the energy input to simply heating the water during electrolysis. The fuel cell conversion,working in reverse,is much the same. For that reason,only about half the power station electricity that went into making the hydrogen finds its way to your batteries,making hydrogen ultimately no more energy-efficient than standard fuels. Electric Cars Many hybrids are half electric cars already. Instead of hydrogen fuel cells,"series hybrids"use gasoline generators to continuously recharge the electric car's batteries. That's more efficient on average than a parallel hybrid,which sometimes uses its gas engine for propulsion,but nowhere near as efficient as a pure battery electric car. Battery electrics,when plugged into a wall and recharged at local power rates,cost about one-tenth as much to operate as hydrogen cars,and a third as much or less than a good hybrid. All of that comes down to the economy of scale of producing electricity at a big power station,and efficient transfer,storage and use by the electric car's battery pack and motor Launch X431 Diagun. Of course,range in an electric car us currently limited by battery pack size,and recharge times exacerbate that range anxiety. But that may not be a problem for long. Hybrids and the Future For as long as there are hydrocarbons to burn,hybrids will likely continue to rise in prominence,and will probably become the standard automotive powerplant. Liquid hydrocarbon fuels are incredibly energy-dense,quick and easy to refill,and the production and distribution infrastructure is already there. As oil demand exceeds supply,expect a rapid shift to biofuels -- in particular algal biodiesel -- which will prove far cheaper,easier to cultivate and more renwable than conventional land-based ethanol biostocks. Since series hybrids offer consistently better economy than parallels,expect to see future roads dominated by biodiesel-powered series hybrids. Ironically,this series-electric diesel approach has long been in use by trains,and is already known to be by far the most efficient use of a hydrocarbon fuel. At this point,it's just a matter of making those drivetrains smaller and marketing them. A Combination Approach While the future will probably be run primarily on the backs of series-electric biodiesel hybrids,there's a good chance that won't be the only technology at work. Because a series-electric is still an electric car at heart,electric car evolution will parallel it side-by-side. And that's a good thing,since acquiring pure electricity will always be cheaper than generating it yourself with an on-board hydrocarbon generator. Tesla Motors has already taken the first steps toward pioneering replaceable battery packs,which will almost certainly play a role later. Most likely,future mainstream cars will use replaceable battery packs primarily,with on-board biodiesel generators as a backup. There's also no reason that those same cars can't use roofs,hoods and trunk lids covered with thin-film solar cells,which could augment the diesel generator and reduce its running time by continuously recharging the batteries. With the right combination of approaches,there's no reason the 400-mpg bio-fueled car couldn't happen today -- it's just a matter of building it while we still can.
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