What will the fuel of the future be?

[Impulsed7]

There is a Hydrogen powered RX-8 thats making like 160 some hp. It was in Car and Driver or something. About the same cost as a normal RX-8, but much better mileage.

BMW has a Hydrogen powered top speed car out so obviously you can get power from there.

O and whatever crap that was about Hydrogen putting off more emissions wasnt from ford. That was the General talking there. They needed an excuse to cut their hydrogen program and focus on gas/electrics. Ford is developing some hydrogen cars, but they wont be out for a long long time.

My opinion on electric cars was best put by some comedian. Electric cars supposedly pollute less, you know because electricity comes from magic. You plug your car into the wall and get electricity from some power plant thats more polluting than any car.

[the afro guy]

well at the moment i can see diesel taking over from the normal petrol cars. thats already happening in europe. then after that i'd say HFC's like neo said. there is a fair bit of research going into these over here.

thin is that it's so hard to predict whats going to be the "big thing" in 10 years time with the rate that technology is moving. its scary. i'll bet that 10 years ago you didn't know that sat nav would be standard in some cars, and that radar guided cruise control would be viable.

[SpeedyE]

Diesel is currently more then gas (petro) in America, at least in my area. Gasalcohol was the big thing (in 1981) look whats happened to it. The sad truth is I doubt any government is going to make any drastic change to fuel until the last drop of oil is squeezed out of some nature perserve.

[Sulax34]

Originally Posted by SpeedyE

Diesel is currently more then gas (petro) in America, at least in my area. Gasalcohol was the big thing (in 1981) look whats happened to it. The sad truth is I doubt any government is going to make any drastic change to fuel until the last drop of oil is squeezed out of some nature perserve.

Too true. The oil industry holds so much power in this government and others. The oil companies have blinded themselves by greed. All they care about is that they are making money now, that they have so much and influence now. They wouldn't want to have to put their money into the costly enterprise of converting all their gas stations into H2 stations. Its a shame our government won't do more to promote H2 conversion. The technology is there, and its proven to work well. Its more of a political issue.


The government does promote some alternative fuels though. A friend of mine worked for the Purdue corporation last summer developing "bio-diesal" fuels. These types of alternative work as well and produce low emissions. Thats not the problem I see with them. I think the problem is how do you grow enough vegetables, or soybeans or whatever to supply the US and other nations with the gas in an plentiful and affordable quantities. I personally don't think its possible to grow enough soybeans for both consumption and fuel extraction.

Hydrogen is the most abundant molecule in the universe, the only problem is its reactivity. While it may make it an excellent fuel, it also means that you won't just find H2 molecules floating around, they need to be seperated from the molecules that contain them. Its doable though. They are large scale industrial reactions that produce tons of H2 gas as a side product. Researchers are finding new ways to extract H2 every year. I just finished reading about a group of australian scientists that have claimed that they have extracted H2 from water using solar energy and a catalyst. Whether there's any truth to their claims, who knows, but its just an example. Hydrogen is def. the fuel of the future.

Sorry for rambling!

[Jd886]

rice

[SpeedyE]

Originally Posted by Jd886

rice

No, my car eats enough civics as it is

[mtmetzger]

Hasn't anyone seen back to the future? If so, you see what the future of fuels are. Cars will be equiped with Mr. Fusion, and all you have to put in it is garbage.

[racerboy777]

we should just put a mini blackhole in every car, those things are powerful enuff to power anything, madpower! now all we gotta do is figure out how to make one and use it to power a car!

[the afro guy]

Originally Posted by racerboy777

we should just put a mini blackhole in every car, those things are powerful enuff to power anything, madpower! now all we gotta do is figure out how to make one and use it to power a car!

then adapt it to swallow up ricers!

[BMW-Angel]

Pfft fuck that, I'm walkin' everywhere..... Give a hoot! Don't pollute!



Neo - where'd you hear about peaking out on oil? I know that we're eventually gonna run out of fossil fuels but I haven't heard anything about it being that fast...

[nickmpower]

before we run out of gas im gunna buy as much of it as i can so i spend my life laughing at u fools in insights and prius's

[the afro guy]

Originally Posted by nickmpower

before we run out of gas im gunna buy as much of it as i can so i spend my life laughing at u fools in insights and prius's

then we'll all point and laugh at you when you realise that petrol starts to go bad after about 4 weeks sitting there doing nothing.

[nickmpower]

a little bit of gas sat in my m3 for 6 months and was fine. I think hundreds of gallons will last longer then 4 weeks

[White318i]

Not much... unfortunatly.
Fuel degrades and it tarnishes.
Simple example, Petrol/LPG vehicles owned by tight arses who never run the petrol system often enough. Their injectors clog and the fuel pumps whirr to a hault after less than 12months of inactivity.
Ex Cabs are notorious for it.

[EEEEeeee36]

Fusion thing? Electrolysis is what separates hydrogen from oxygen out of water. In Sweden they have something called the Hydrogen Highway. They have hydrogen refueling stations that use electrolysis to separate the hydrogen and oxygen out of purified water. Then people just pump it into their cars (of which there are several hydrogen powered models of cars in Europe already, mostly hybrid). These stations are also solar powered, so they can be put anywhere they want.