Electric / Hydrogen

[s13kid]

I have been wondering this for somtime, i just responded to DragonUSMCs post about the Tesla but it was a bit long and off topic so i decided to start a new thread.

Im curious from those of you who have knowledge about it, im not really looking for any opinions.

There seems to be alot of money going into researching Hydrogen Fuel Cells although, it seems to me that Electric cars are the way to go. They do not have to be slow, they can be decently efficient. I have heard that Hydrogen Cars if they were to be sold now would cost upwards to almost $400,000? There are people out there making electric cars, driveable, quick electric cars for under 30 grand. and wouldnt it possible to incorporate an alternator into an electric car helping extend the distance it can make on a single charge.

Why is there so much Hype around the Hydrogen Fuel Cell, only benifit im getting from it is that it puts of H20 as an Emmission.

Try not to flame, I havnet done hardly any research and all of this is just off the top of my head from what i have heard/read about over the last year or 2.

[Stg4raddo]

the problem with electric car technology is and has been the battery technology or lack there of. NIHM batteries are good and they don't hold a memory after deep discharges like older technology but lithium is the way to go. the Tesla roadster uses lithium batteries if im not mistaken. Even with new batteries the biggest problem is getting any kind of distance out of the batteries. and hydrogen has the advantage in that area. plus water never hurt any one. disposal of the chemicals in batteries can be kinda iffy.

As far as the adding an alternator to an electrical car to add tot he batteries this is not possible and the easiest way to explain it is with the law of conservation of energy. if you think about it the alternator would need to be driven by some thing this would add friction making the car work harder and basicly canceling out any energy produced by the alternator due to increased energy it takes to move the car in the first place.

im not sure if that makes sense or not. it helps to have a basic understanding of physics to realize that the alternator would be hurting you if any thing

[brown7]

Hydrogen fuel cell cars are essentially electric cars. Difference being that in a battery powered car, you stop, recharge the batteries and go. In a fuel cell powered car, the fuel cell produces the electricity to power the electric motors, thus negating the charging process by simply topping off the hydrogen tank for the cell.

[ZacFields]

what if the alternator was somehow running off your axle or something? Connected to your front wheel axle. Unless you're on the highway it probably wouldn't be spinning real fast... probably wouldn't be worth the trouble but i'm sure it would create more power than it was using to operate it.

Cars will be the most efficient when they learn how to convert everything into energy in a car. Like wind that passes around your car could probably be converted into energy. Car would look crazy with a bunch of windmills on it but you get the idea. When your wheels are turning while you're driving, that is where all the energy is released, but it's also creating a lot of energy that could be harnessed in some way. The pressure of the exhaust coming out of your muffler expels a kind of energy also that could be harnessed.

There are tons of ways that energies that a car creates could be harnessed and put back into the car to increase fuel efficiency.

Also I believe fuel cells are a type of battery that have hydrogen in them. I had money invested in a company that dealt with fuel cells, and hydrogen fuel cells are just batteries...really expensive batteries I believe.

Cars that actually run on hydrogen itself are being created and are not any more expensive than any other car. There is a guy right here in the US that has built his own car that literally is refilled with a garden hose. I will look up the video and post it in a minute.

Zac

[ZacFields]

http://my.break.com/media/view.aspx?ContentID=112762

Watch the whole thing. It starts with a welder but ends with his car that he built to run on water/gasoline mix.

Zac

[Stg4raddo]

zac most of those ideas fall into the area of the law of conservation of energy. sure you can make all those things into energy but the process of doing so takes energy and cancels the process out. thus making it not effective.

the best way as of yet for electric vehicles is hydrogen power or a series hybrid vehicle. both use power sources to spin the alternator and charge batteries. and the batteries in turn power the electric motor that moves the car.

this is different from parallel cars that can use both the electric motor and gas/ diesel etc motor to power the car.

i think the best option would be hydrogen to a diesel hybrid. there are cars in Europe hitting close to the 100mpg mark on dieseil. so you combine that with a hybrid system similar to the prius and your golden to break the 100mpg mark or more.

[ZacFields]

I have a feeling now that gas has gotten over the $3.00 mark we're going to be seeing a lot of money get thrown into development of more fuel-efficient vehicles. My claim still stands that we will never see $5.00 gas unless inflation gets way out of hand (and it might). People are well aware there is a problem now. Sometimes you just have to cross that next dollar threshold for people to understand that they have to change their ways... and if the national average goes over $4.00 per gallon you're going to see a lot of people riding bikes and walking places that they normally would drive to.

If you're in stocks, now is an awesome time to invest in any alternative energy stock. Unfortunately I have a little debt to pay off... some new furniture I bought :) But I sure wish I had a little bit of money to put into ethanol, fuel cells, etc right about now.

Zac