Re: Hybrid Lovers Read This and Lament

I recently saw a print article about this topic, not sure if this is the full thing, but quite interesting to me.

"The chassis that's sitting in a workroom on the campus of San Diego State University is painted a shade of red you'd expect to see on the lips of an attention-starved woman. On a car, the color conjures up speed, sass, and power. But this car's looks are deceptive. Although it can blast from a standstill to 60 miles per hour in less than five seconds, a single gallon of fuel can propel the vehicle 80 miles. The engine is augmented by a battery-powered motor, which can be recharged by plugging a cord into an ordinary wall socket. And the engine fuel? You can run it on diesel if that's convenient. But soybean oil works just as well."

"San Diego State University Professor Jim Burns says people have asked him where they could buy a car like this. "Nowhere," he has to say. When Burns and his team of engineering students designed and built the car -- which they called the "Enigma" -- they weren't trying to develop a commercial product. Instead they wanted to prove that it was possible to make an automobile that used no fossil fuels, got phenomenal mileage, and looked and performed like a race car. Four years later, Burns and a new team of students are attempting to transform Chevrolet's Equinox into the kind of SUV even an environmentalist could love. Their work is part of the Challenge X competition, which is being cosponsored by General Motors and the Department of Energy. Theirs is one of 17 teams, and hardly among the front-runners."

The team's site is at:

Dave

Hey - haven't you ever heard the experession "Don't sweat the small stuff"? Don't bother me with details. :)

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')

Mike Hunter wrote:

That seems kind of weird, but if our discussion helped you fire up the ol' "number one spark plug" again, then glad we could help. The centerfolds aren't working for you anymore? :)

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')

She electrified him.

Ted

Good idea. Including the cost of electricity to charge it?

"Mike Hunter" wrote in news:3GednWCNUq snipped-for-privacy@ptd.net:

the moon of course :)

The hybrids are here to stay

Those who have not started making hybrids are out in the cold

Fuel cells in combination with something else is the future

Which is the best make and model of Hybrid cars and/or fuel cells

I guess all the major car companies have at least one for you to try out

Lets say ordinary petrol/diesel cars have a lifespan of 10 years with all their moving parts

The fuel cell cars have a lot less moving parts and theoretically they could last for decades

We are then talking about comfort and usability of the cars

You do not take ordinary car and turn it into a fuel cell car

Because we are in fact talking about a revolution, there is hardly any experince with these cars yet

Even if the numbers are marginal at the moment in a few years they will be taking over from the others

There is not much production capacity for these cars yet

It is changing dramatically and fast

All the infrastructures for energydistribution needs to be built up and it will

The need for oil will eventually drop

Fuel cells can be used for heating up houses and in your cell phones

Nuclear plants will be built to generate electricity

There is a lot riding on this new technology

We may not need to pay terrorists for the energy in the future

Thanks for the interesting reply.

B

snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote:

What are you going to do with all that nuclear waste?

Store it safely for a few decades, until we learn how to extract the remaining energy. Maybe at low toxicity levels, it will be sold for use in individual Mr. Fusion home power plants.

Yes exactly. We have a few squillion square miles of unused dirt (so have you) that we could store horrendous amounts of waste. If you fly over Canada you get some idea of just how much unused dirt we really have. It's even bigger then Texas! (O: (O:

Yes exactly. We have a few squillion square miles of unused dirt (so have you) that we could store horrendous amounts of waste. If you fly over Canada you get some idea of just how much unused dirt we really have. It's even bigger then Texas! (O: (O:

I've heard it tastes great as a seasoning in soups.

Ted

You don't think we could re-enrich it and send it to be stored where we get all of our oil from at the moment? We've got lots of unused ICBM's sitting around ;-) Kidding of course ;-)

BTW How much waste is generated by fusion reactors? can't be too much.

I believe that there's more radioactive medical waste generated than power plant radioactive waste. (but I could be wrong) No one is saying that we should quit treating people to reduce pollution are they?

Theoretically, yes, but you don't understand modern business, which is good at taking things that have an inherent nature of lasting a lifetime and thinning things down, using less critical materials, etc. to last only as long as is economically optimum for themselves. All it takes is a little research for them to find out which part(s) or component(s) they can exactly control to make it fail at the prescribed time to end up having a break-even of about what it is with competing technologies.

But you're right - it will probably happen. Just like with other things, a lot will be promised in the beginning with a lot of genuine technical potential, but the results will be engineered and politicized and environmentallized to the point that it's no better than anything else.

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')

You can strike it lucky and you can gain a lot by being a pioneer The new technology may be faulty and you can get a faulty system The likelyhood of striking out is not very great because the companies are well aware that they have to create a good image and not let you get anything that brakes straightaway Ok at least some of them anyway The real problem at the moment is that the infrastructure of the country is not ready So you might not be able to travel very far away if you are into the most modern technologies and no place to get fuel