ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade Non-US Electrical Systems & Trades electric hybrid car

World's most efficient electric car...or just another lemon?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring...-worlds-most-efficient-electric-car.html

GM wades in with a Segway- based 2 seater. Reminds me of a giant bowling ball -

[ Emergency stop - STRIKE! ]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring...Money-driving-the-car-of-the-future.html

Personally I'd prefer an electric 2 seater looking similar to this- good visibility and driving position, simple construction- with modern materials, the weight could be easily better than halved. This layout would never date, [we seem incapable today of boning down stuff to the essentials]:

FORD, [prototytpe], year 1896, 1050cc [64 cu. in] 2-cylinder gasoline/alcohol engine, 'hit and miss' governor, 3 BHP, 2-speed, rear-engine and drive to both rear wheels, leather-belt clutch. No weather protection, but neither has a bicycle. Weight 500lb, max speed 20mph, [fast enough for most cities]. Faults: No brakes, no reverse gear! Sales: 3, Cost new: $200
Surviving machine, 1 : Ford Museum, Dearborn.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MGLGQYonsg&feature=related

[This is a replica.]

Alan:

Thanks again for the interesting links.

OT, but to touch on a recent post about 'getting your hands dirty', here's a non-electrical but 'green' vehicle solution, running with my favorite stuff- wood! Which we have a lot of in France and the US, I'm told. All intrinsically untaxable!

So, Back to the Future, Forward to the Past with Georges Imbert's [1922] and very efficient 'Gazogene' wood gas generator, which ran most of the private cars, tractors and trucks during WWII in occupied France.

Chevriolet truck: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BkqyyW70dQ

Citroen traction avant: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_d7Xb3L5Jo&NR=1

At back, the generator. Up front, the gas filter and chiller. On top, the spare fuel . BTW, the filter was wine corks. When it got dirty, you burned it for fuel!

Here's a couple of interesting videos of the technique of gasifying wood or other bio-wastes to create electricity. The method is an offshoot of a design sponsored by the US Government during the oil crisis of the early 70's: a simpler downdraft version of Georges Imbert's machine, coupled to computer control. The third film shows my idea of fun - ol' boys making stuff out of scrap with dirty hands out in th' woods! [The tune in this is Wild Wood Flower, if anyone out there remembers Maybelle Carter in those 50's flour ads with Flatt and Scruggs.]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrRH...DA7B5FD94A0CE&index=1&playnext=4

Here's a reprint of the report on downdraft gasifiers by the Federal Energy Management Agency, Oak Ridge National Laboratory. TN. [ US Department of Energy ] , for reference.

http://www.soilandhealth.org/03sov/0302hsted/fema.woodgas.pdf

GlidArc®.

Plasma arcs used to reform vegetable oil to syngas.

This is a French patented reactor, claimed to be able to crack VO into syngas, with no coking, tar or soot. It operates at atmospheric pressure with no metallic catalysts. The VO is injected with a small amount of air, which supplies oxygen, [the prof calls it a ‘catalyst’], for the carbon > carbon monoxide reaction that oxidises coke and tars to a combustible gas. The reformation of the bulk of the VO seems to be by exothermic thermal cracking.

A series of 3-phase arcs are struck over 3 equally spaced diverging electrodes, contained in a closed vertical tube reactor. The VO+ air, [at a ratio of about 100 litres of free air per minute to 30 ml/minute of VO], is injected by a gear pump and compressor[?], into the cone formed by the 3 arcs through a 4mm [5/32”] diameter tube. At the above parameters, the device will produce about 13kw [44,000 btu] of gas value from a one litre reactor. This implies some sort of injection spray nozzle? The arcs glide down/up[?] the electrodes and are extinguished at the tips, and then reform at the electrode roots, producing a continuous cone of plasma, [superheated ions], a similar effect to arc breaker horns seen on transmission lines. The arcs are running at about 10,000volts peak at less than 0.1 amperes, and are claimed to consume < 2% of the electrical power of the calorific value of the VO processed. There are no other heating devices, but the assembly is insulated. The syngas produced contains hydrogen, CO, and other combustible gasses, as well as a small % of nitrogen, steam and CO2. Overall [since some of the VO is ‘burned’ in the reactor to provide heat for the exothermic process] the percentage conversion is claimed to be about 70%, which is on a par with Georges Imbert’s Gazogene devices converting wood to syngas. The researchers claim that the VO does not need to be particularly clean – indeed they also claim that the machine can be run on biomass as diverse as powdered bagasse, wood, gycerol or grass clippings in other reports.

The device as described in the literature has a long warm up period of over 30 minutes, limiting it to commercial gas production rather than domestic heating or automobile fuel, but this could be addressed. For automobile use, such a device with rapid startup could be very compact and light- and with VO as the primary fuel, not only 'green and clean' but with a far better range than batteries will ever achieve.

http://albin.czernichowski.pagesperso-orange.fr/ECP/CP1%2067%20Rapeseed%20paper.pdf

Google 'GlidArc', I can't get the flaming links to work!

Alan

The economic logic of the process would dictate that the gadget be scaled up and made a part of our refineries.

Low cost methane from fracked fields permits refiners to process ever heavier crudes at even lower total cost.

BTW, the Swedes developed similar technologies with DC arcs in the 70's. They were driven by homopolar generators originally schemed up to test re-entry vehicles with DC arc temperatures.

The Swedes were able to destroy toxic waste or make syn-gas from biomass.

very interesting, cool car