Manufacturers and researchers have been dabbling with technology that helps build hybrids, electric cars, and alternative fuel vehicles, for quite some time now, because of the growing concern for our environment. With a shocking revelation that our planet was on the verge of an ecological disaster, in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, by the mid nineties, leading car manufacturers around the world finally came to a consensus regarding fossil fuel consumption, and started producing greener, fuel efficient cars by the turn of the century. Today, in the 21st century, we have seen many different vehicles with a hybrid engine: a conventional motor engine is present in such vehicles along with an electric engine. The most fuel efficient hybrid cars today switch between the power sources of an electric motor, and a combustion engine according to the power consumed by the car. Typically, in a hybrid vehicle running on city streets or when traveling at low speeds, the electric motor powers the car and during high-speed maneuvering or longer drives, the petrol engine does the work. It has been a dream of many a manufacturer to combine the green quotient of an electric car, with high performance. Until date, electric cars have shown limited usability and poor performance when it comes to high speeds. Today’s electric cars are usually 2 seater, lightweight mini sized cars, with a top speed of 25- 40 mph. when you look at city driving, this is not so bad, but for anything else, this falls short of many people’s expectations. The fact that they are zero emission vehicles make them completely environment friendly, however, and this is something that is immensely beneficial to the city or the country they run in. Research and development on the lines of creating powerful electric motors for a much better performance is something that is essential, when we are looking at cars for the future. Primarily, these were how to increase the power of the battery powered electric engine for high speeds, decrease time between recharges, and how to gain optimal mileage performance. Nothing short of an engineering feat has lead to the creation of the ultimate engine. The green technology is spreading up quite fast to various industrial venues these days. Car manufacturing is one of the most important ones of those venues. This spread is bringing in new opportunities to the investors. The luxury sports car or super-car segment is certainly an interesting market driver, and if a green supercar is made available things could change quite a bit within a few short years.
Posts Tagged ‘Green’
Green Car Technology for the Future
December 31st, 2009Alternate Fuels – Overcomming Betrayals Passed – Emerging Green Energy Groups
December 24th, 2009Society as a whole is submerged. . . submerged within the depths of marketing campaigns run by corporate giants? This is a question that anyone could ask and anytime it is asked, could unveil a certain degree of truth in anyone’s life “How did the community – the society arrive at where it is at now?”. The energy industry is filled with giants dictating (could you say dictating? how you ever found out for yourself?) what energies are consumed by the general populace.
If you look to see at how products have become popular, you may find it has been through TV, advertising, celebrities – many of which are endorsed by large corporate organizations and carry along with their ads, the message of these corporations. Thus, you are looking at a large fabric through which many of us look, squint or even peer through to see what is actually available to us in almost any commercial market.
In addition, the current fuels which in general use have relatively high and dangerous waste products. Thus, the information could be said to not be widely known by the general populace as when informed, make better decisions. And so we could say, perhaps ignorance is the path to domination by a few and a dark destiny. If you have any questions and would rather not know, don’t take heed the claims of global warming, increased volatility of weather conditions and/or a Mother Earth’s cry for help.
Although, now with the Internet, many new markets, pockets of clique’s, interest groups, etc. . . have evolved and are evolving allowing for products to be sold which were not before, services to be offered and the demand filled. It is true that now more millionaires have been made than ever before and many of which have come from the Internet.
Apart of this evolution, new information comes to light such as that which has been found with such things as Hydrogen fuels. Most fuels which are seen on the market currently are centralized and controlled under corporate blankets. If you look at petroleum or nearly any current technology used in mass production of general energy consumption (for example the energy that arrives to your house comes from large plants – centralized – the gas from your car comes from large plants – centralized, etc. . . , etc. . . ) you will find is centralized and controlled by large corporate structures. But along with these new emerging groups are the green energy groups.
Alternate fuels keep punching away at the headlines of magazines and newspapers (possibly filled with propaganda?) about these various fuels. But, the repetition and noise generated by these green energy groups can but help being heard as the news is ground breaking and shaking it as well.
One of these groups is that has been forming at an incredibly rapid rate is the Hydrogen from water groups. These guys are using water and a basic form of electrolysis (use of electricity such as that which comes from you car battery to electrify water and perform a chemical reaction) to create Hydrogen from ordinary water. This technology has existed since 1820 but also with additional new technologies which have come about, this process is now available to anyone.
Hydrogen is also known as a comparable to gasoline as it is 3X’s as explosive and converts back to water when combusted. Why hasn’t it been in use in vehicles already? (If the answer is not apparent, pleas re-read earlier paragraphs and find out for yourself)
The ease of use and availability of the parts to make hydrogen from water has lead many people from the world to take part. The hydrogen’s most popular use has been to supplement car’s gasoline in-take.
Hydrogen use with car installations as a gas supplement is really only the beginning of the use of hydrogen power as 1 jar of water (approx 6 ounces) will convert to large amounts of hydrogen (as water is basically a “compressed” form of hydrogen) and can be used to power houses, RVs running them for weeks.
The proportions may seem fantastic but when you take into account the fact that HHO (hydroxy) when combusted, turns back to water, you have a fuel which has tremendous potential for efficiency, longevity and cost savings due to the fact is this planet’s largest resource available as a free burning energy.
Anyone who does a simple search with Google on the Internet with HHO, hydroxy, HHO generator or any of the such will find thousands upon thousands of documents representing the growing numbers of people across the world who are taking part of this emerging group across the net which is now extending it’s fabric through to local communities and allowing for a greener planet by cutting out pollutants, cutting down on the need for gasoline, improving gas mileage and a myriad of other eco-friendly solutions to normal day living.
So, count your pennies a little less, take hit and punch through a bit of this fabric which has perhaps been paid out in front of your eyes by the blankets of corporate marketing campaigns. Do a search on the net, check out the afore mentioned sites and see, perhaps it is true that you don’t have to spend so much gas or be in the dark on alternative energies.
Pyrolysis is an Emerging Green Technology
December 17th, 2009Pyrolysis is an emerging technology and its green credentials when the feed is biomass are top notch. Everyone who has lit a wood or coal fire and watched it burn has seen pyrolysis. Pyrolysis is usually the first chemical reaction that occurs in the burning of many solid organic fuels, like wood, cloth, and paper, and also of some kinds of plastic. In a wood fire, the visible flames are not due to combustion of the wood itself, but rather of the gases released by its pyrolysis; whereas the flame-less burning of embers is the combustion of the solid residue (charcoal) left behind by it. Although the basic concepts of the process have been validated, the performance data for an emerging technology have not been evaluated according to methods approved by EPA and adhering to EPA quality assurance/quality control standards. Waste is converted to a fuel by heating the waste which burns just as coal or wood does under the right controlled conditions. Whereas incineration fully converts the input waste into energy and ash, these processes limit the conversion so that combustion does not take place directly. Waste Plastic under pressure and catalytic cracking produces fuel and can be used as a fuel source. Under certain temperature conditions the plastic macromolecular chains are broken down into small molecular chains (simple hydrocarbon compounds) and those small molecular compounds contain C4 to C20, this compound is a component of petrol, coal oil, and diesel. Anhydrous pyrolysis can also be used to produce liquid fuel similar to diesel from solid biomass. Fast pyrolysis occurs in a time of a few seconds or less. Therefore, not only chemical reaction kinetics but also heat and mass transfer processes, as well as phase transition phenomena, play important roles. Fast pyrolysis is a process in which organic materials are rapidly heated to 450 – 600 degrees C in absence of air. Under these conditions, organic vapors, permanent gases and charcoal are produced. Researchers at Virginia Tech have identified pyrolysis as a potential technology for disposing of poultry litter. The ultimate goal of the project is to develop transportable pyrolysis units to process the waste from poultry growers within one locality, thus reducing transportation cost. Researchers believe that the char, an inert and highly porous material, plays a key role in helping soil retain water and nutrients, and in sustaining microorganisms that maintain soil fertility. Researchers have obtained from wood – initially beech and then coniferous species – oils with almost ideal characteristics. Straw, which has a lower energy yield – 50% as opposed to 70% for wood – is also due to be analysed in the near future. Bill Gates’ personal investment vehicle, is reportedly backing Sapphire Energy, a start up working towards a commercial-scale facility to produce oil from algae, but we think he would do well to look at gasification and pyrolysis as his energy technology because there are so many possibilities in this technology. Gasification technology also offers the possibility to create a new domestic supply of gas. It works by converting the hydrocarbons in coal, biomass and waste petroleum products into a gas called “syngas” that can be used in place of natural gas to generate power, or used in manufacturing as fuel or feedstock. Gasification avoids many problems which can occur in biogas digesters, and is also able to process lignin and cellulose, which are hard to ferment.
