John,
Of course, the efficiency of the entire system must be taken into
consideration when dealing with alternate transportation and, yes, you are
correct that a car powered by compressed air simply moves the pollution
"upstream."
I have no idea how well this method of propulsion is going to work, but that
does not mean that it should note be investigated. Even if the system is
inefficient, it may have a place in cities that are hopelessly polluted. I
remember being in Taipei some ten years ago. You could taste the pollution,
and I'm not kidding. Because of the buoyant economy, bicycles had been
superseded by two-cycle motorbikes and scooters and each change of a red
traffic light to green was followed by an immense cloud of blue smoke when
all the motorcyclist took off. Seems that, collectively, we have a limited
number of choices: public transit, "near-zero pollution" private
transportation, or a lower life expectancy due to respiratory problems.
There may well be other ingenious solutions. I know that the Swiss have
experimented with flywheel powered buses and, I suppose, one could use a car
powered by a wind-up spring. ;-)
Chuck Vandergraaf
'52 +4 (non-polluting, while it sits waiting to be restored)
-----Original Message-----
From: John F. Bates [mailto:jfbjd@swbell.net]
Sent: Thursday November 02, 2000 3:50 PM
To: morgans@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: Zero pollution: 40,000 of them for the Mexican government
The analysis, imho, really should be how efficiently the entire system,
including the auto, uses energy. This compressed air car takes a quantum of
energy in the form of electricity, and uses it to compress the air. Then it
releases the air to drive the auto. The power plant efficiency, and the
compressor's have to be factored in to the picture. The power plant's
efficiency should reflect the cost of obtaining the fuel and the disposal of
waste products.
The conventional auto uses refined fuel, the cost of transportation, etc.
reflected in its price. The cost of disposal of its waste products needs to
include the cost of pollution, which seems hard to quantify, and needs to be
balanced with the same concerns regarding the stationary power plants the
air car relies upon.
You may find that the air car loses out on the energy efficiency, and only
moves the pollution "upstream" to the power plant.
I agree with Fred Sisson in that the older cars have already created their
impact on the environment when built, and if kept up, will have impact only
where their concentrations are high.
Of course, Morgans utilize a renewable resource, wood, to a large degree, so
if you build new cars, more of them should be Morgans.:) John F. Bates 56
+4, other lesser vehicles
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