I’ve been reading a lot of late about the end of oil, and what will come next. No sector is more affected by this than transportation.
From all I can discern, it’s clear there are significant shortcomings for every possible proposed replacement.
It’s also clear that, with a combination of these technologies, we might come up with more efficient, emission free ways to move things around.
Due to these issues, which I’ll explain below the fold, the smartest car anyone on the planet could be building or buying right now is this: a flex-fuel, bi-fuel, plug-in hybrid.
So what the hell does that look like?
Flex-fuel means the car can run on a mixture of gasoline and alcohol-based fuels (ethanol or methanol) in any mixture (up to a point. Some cars can now run on E85 – allowing a mixture of up to 15% alcohol-based fuel).
Bi-fuel cars have two completely separate fueling systems, either of which can be used at a time. A good combination here would be one flex-fuel system and one CNG (compressed natural gas), LNG (liquified natural gas) or LPG (liquified propane gas) system.
Hybrid technology allows you to run on electric power, when available, and then switch to fuel when you’re out of electrical power. In addition, some hybrids recapture the energy lost in the braking of the car – that stored momentum can be converted to reusable energy. Being able to plug in and charge your hybrid will allow you to run longer on pure electrical power.
Now of course, if that electrical power is generated by coal-burning or oil-burning power plants, then you’ve merely traded your tailpipe emissions for the power plant’s. But if that electricity comes from water power, solar power, wind power, or geothermal power, now you’re talking dramatically reduced emissions and greater energy efficiency.
So where can you buy such a car?
Nowhere. Yet.
You can find samples of any one of these – flex-fuel, bi-fuel, plug-in EVs, and hybrids. The plug-in hybrids are just around the corner. I’d guess the flex-fuel hybrid will be next. But if you could get all in a car? That would be cool!
Why didn’t I mention hydrogen fuel cells, you might ask?
First, there’s tank size. According to the the interesting government site (yes, that’s NOT an oxymoron)at FuelEconomy.gov,
Since hydrogen gas is diffuse, it must be stored in high-pressure tanks in order to store enough to travel reasonable distances on a full tank of fuel. Currently used tanks, which allow hydrogen to be compressed to 5,000 pounds/square inch (psi) of pressure, can only store enough hydrogen gas to allow FCVs to go about 200 miles before refueling. However, manufacturers are designing and testing tanks that will store more hydrogen at a higher pressure.
As of just yesterday, that barrier seems to be breaking. According to this South Korean site,
Professor Lim Ji-sun of Seoul National University’s School of Physics announced on August 4 that he had found a new material with a structure that can store hydrogen in normal temperature without pressurization. This new matter can store enough hydrogen to move a car for a certain distance, a trip that would have consumed the same volume and weight in gasoline as the hydrogen used.
…With the storage efficiency for commercialization of Professor Lim’s new material at 7.6 percent, surpassing that targeted by the U.S. Department of Energy 6.5 percent, his discovery is expected to draw interest from automobile makers worldwide. The thesis by Prof. Lim’s team was published in the August 4 issue of the Physical Review Letter, a scientific journal in physics.
But even without that limitation, there are still distribution problems. I think in all of Los Angeles, there’s only one place that pumps hydrogen, and it’s at the airport, for demo purposes, primarily. You can’t send hydrogen through oil pipelines, can’t store it in oil tanks, and can’t can’t pump it through the local gas stations. In other words, we’d need a completely new infrastructure built before that would be useful.
So I’m not yet betting on fuel cells as the next big thing, yet. I think you’re best bet is going electric where possible, and keeping your fuel options open.
Now if someone could come up with a catchier name than flex-fuel, bi-fuel, plug-in hybrid, that might help as well… How about the Chimera?
Energy independence is the ONLY way that we can get out of the economic imperialist bind in which we are now trapped. The only way that will not require a total destruction of American society as it is now built, anyway.
A New Deal/W.W. II-sized effort could get us there in 5-10 years. It would also solve our unemployment problem, and if done correctly would reduce our pollution by a huge amount as well.
Will we do it?
It’s either this or PermaWar.
2008 will tell the tale.
AG
I agree – 2008 is in a way, judgment day for our country. I hope we pass muster.
When you find one of these let us know!!
And I love the name chimera.
What’s truly aggravating is that the technology to do this exists now. No, it’s not perfected, but if we don’t start doing it we’re not going to discover the bugs and work them out – gotta crawl before we can fly!
My late father-in-law converted an old Mercury Cougar to be a bi-fuel car in the 1970s when the “oil crisis” hit. The secondary fuel was propane, which they already used for heating at their farm outside Kansas City. You only had to flick a switch on the dashboard to change from one system to another. And he wasn’t a rocket scientist – he only had an 8th grade education, but was a perpetual learner until he died. (Too bad he was a talibaptist, LOL.)
Wow – your father sounds like a great guy. It’s funny, too. Most of the major inventors were not formally trained – they were just curious, believed in themselves, and started tinkering.
What’s a “talibaptist”? A taliban-like fundamentalist???
That’s exactly what it is. The Baptist Taliban.
The problem with that is the price of the conversion kit. I have heard on tv, that the cost was about $20,000. I am very surprissed at those prices, because in Argentina the price was arround $400.
the other problem with that system,is that if it is “home made”,it will problalby end up blowing up. The have been a few cases of cabbies blowing up down south. So, they improbed the systems to some special tanks. The other problem that did not exist before is the computarized systems that they use now.
Still, I prefer the bio fuel. I used to own an 85 BMW diesel which I got for free. It would make 44 MPG. Now, if you transformed that into bio, it would still make the same distance, but at a cost of 5 cents a gallon, that is if you dont get it for free. (Many restaurants will give it to you if you, just so they dont have to pay for disposal)
The Xebra City Car
OK, so it’s not a big vroom-vroom. Its top speed is 40 MPH. That’s actually a good thing, because being a big vroom-vroom isn’t what it’s designed for. Therefore, there are a bunch of things it won’t do:
I haven’t verified all these numbers, but if they’re even close this puppy sounds like a winner.
Check out this writeup from last Friday in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. The key quote:
If people used cars like these for getting around town where you’re driving less than 15 to 20 miles at speeds of 40 MPH or less and kept their landbarges for longer trips or switched to alternatives like public transportation or renting cars, think of the impact it would have on the environment.
But how many of us can afford second cars? (Or am I the only one??)
Lots of us have second cars. Trouble is, those second cars tend to cost upward of $18,000. Having a Xebra as a second car would cost less than half that — even less when you figure in the savings on gas.
I can see two viable strategies here. The first would be to have a larger car for heavy lifting, long car trips and the like, and the Xebra for grocery runs, local commuting and short trips — the stuff that makes up 90% of our driving. Or, if after you have a Xebra for a while and find that you can’t justify the depreciation, insurance and the like on a car you only use once or twice a week, go with an alternative like Flexcar, rental vehicles, or — gasp! — public transportation. (I include taxis in public transportation.)
The trick is to think outside the box.
Or give me a quick efficient bus as an alternative. When I lived in a few larger cities I would only communte using DART…
Hear hear. I haven’t even owned a car since 1983. The trick is to plan your life so you don’t need a car — live on bus lines, know the numbers of the taxi companies, stuff like that. It’s just a matter of deciding you’re going to do it and making the effort.
I’ve found that to be the case anyway, but for me it was easier. I learned (by no coincidence at all, in about 1983) that I was not a good driver and had no business being behind a wheel. That made the decision much easier.
In Los Angeles, one whole fleet is fueled by CNG. It’s coming, slowly. Maybe too slowly, but at least CA has started down a cleaner path….