I knew somebody in FOT to would know a lot about his. I figured that carbon
had to be a problem. I noticed at the car show this year that there were a
great number of larger vehicles that could run alternative fuels. Most
interesting to me is that their injection is completely adaptive (if the
sales guys are to be believed). I asked if there was any procedure required
to switch fuel--like emptying the tank, etc. They said no--you can mix
freely, the injection and injection adjusts to the mixture across the
spectrum from all gas to all alcohol. Makes sense considering no adjustment
is necessary to run Gasohol.
I just read an article about the Prius that said Toyota will sell 150,000 of
them this year worldwide. That's a huge number for a hybrid. Whenever I see
the name I immediately think Priapism. Sometimes a cigar is not a cigar.
-----Original Message-----
From: Michael D. Porter [mailto:portermd@zianet.com]
Sent: Monday, March 15, 2004 11:00 PM
To: Bill Babcock; fot@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: Interesting Hydrogen stuff plus LBC question
Bill Babcock wrote:
> I love this kind of stuff.
> http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/rnb_030804.asp?trk=nl
>
> Makes you realize that some of the really persistent problems (like
> what are we gonna do when we run out of dead dinosaur juice) may not
> be all that big of a problem. And the solutions might be very prosaic.
> A fuel injector and a catalyst to make hydrogen from ethanol, and a
> fuel cell to convert it to electricity. Hmm, no noise, portable,
> potentially cheap fuel, pure water from the fuel cell as a byproduct.
> I wonder what comes out of the H2 converter. C2H5OH goes in, but I
> don't know anything about catalyzed reactions like this.
The company for which I worked, until it was cast into the depths of the
globalization ocean by its owners, had a long-term fuel-cell project. There
is one element you only partially describe in the above that's the principal
problem--a reactor chamber to convert ethanol (or methanol) to hydrogen.
This thing gets gummy with carbon residues and needs repetitive maintenance.
Otherwise, the system is fairly sound, except for the issue of energy
exchange.
Catalytically stripping the hydrogen from ethanol or methanol is a net
energy loss--those C=H covalent bonds that are broken to release the
hydrogen don't contribute to the motive process--it's only done because the
fuel cell can't use ethanol or methanol directly. And, if the reactor
maintenance isn't done, the fuel cell eventually quits working.
Reactors to date don't perfectly exchange the carbon in ethanol or methanol
to CO2.
The energy exchange ratio/emissions output using straight ethanol with a
catalytic converter is probably nearly equal to that of a fuel cell, without
extraordinary changes in current technology.
Don't get me wrong--hybrid-electric technology today is maturing, and
direct-electric fuel cells are going to be here to stay. But, if there's a
net loss of energy conversion efficiency, then the demand volume of ethanol
and methanol required will far exceed the supply, and the fuel costs will be
exorbitant.
The other issue today is long-term maintenance costs. Traditionally,
internal combustion engines are maintainable with a rather low investment on
the part of the owner. That historical reality will get turned on its head
with this technology, which will require a level of training at dealerships
unheard of in the past, and the replacement parts costs will be fierce. The
difference between maintaining a fuel cell vehicle and an internal
combustion engine will be, at current costs, about a factor of eight or
nine, perhaps dropping to a factor of three or four in a decade or two.
Much of that is directly due to the control circuitry, which is expensive to
diagnose and repair. I suppose there may be volumetric improvements there,
but what I've seen to date doesn't seem encouraging regarding costs.
Ultimately, the real answer is, near-term, alternative fuel vehicles using
modified current technology and/or hybrid-electrics running on either
gasoline or alternative fuels, and in the long term, a much better national
mass transit system, combined with all-electric vehicles powered from grids
supplied by solar/wind/biomass generators.
As for vintage racing, as I've previously suggested, relaxation of the rules
to allow the use of naturally-derived ethanol or methanol in combination
with digital fuel injection will go a long way to preserving the sport in
the next decade or two, when the public consciousness will be focused on
diminishing resources. Fuel injection will improve mileage, and using
bio-fuels from plants which fix CO2 will be a selling point for racing clubs
which will inevitably find themselves under attack in the next decade or so.
Cheers.
--
Michael D. Porter
Roswell, NM
Never let anyone drive you crazy when you know it's within walking distance.
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