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| Thread ID: 61002 | 2005-08-21 05:47:00 | What website would you build to benefit New Zealand or the world? | CreightonBrown (5692) | PC World Chat |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 382729 | 2005-08-23 07:58:00 | We *could* but there's a problem. It takes about 1.2 times the amount of electricity to make hydrogen than you get from it. So basicly a kwh of hydrogen costs 1.2 units of power. IE: It costs more to "get" than you get from it. It's effectively running the car from electricity. |
george12 (7) | ||
| 382730 | 2005-08-24 02:39:00 | Some interesting question, let's have a go at answering them : > What Is the Universe Made Of? Dust, coagulated dust, anti-matter and lots of empty space. > What is the Biological Basis of Consciousness? Je pense donc je suis etc etc Next question? :D I enjoyed that Andrew. Excellent. :D |
Winston001 (3612) | ||
| 382731 | 2005-08-24 02:46:00 | You could make a car run very well on sea water. Just build a tower (a hundred feet high, or so) on top of the car, with a water tank at the top. Pull into your local service station and pump a few hundred gallons up to the tank. (After all, service stations are already selling water for more than petrol). Then you can run the car using your Pelton turbine. The exhaust water will keep the roads clean. Unfortunately, you're still using some energy to raise the water to the height needed. The pumps and motors to do that might be 75% efficient, and the turbine might be 60% ... The tower might make cornering a bit of a problem, and overhead wires wouldn't last long. A bicycle runs well fuelled by Weetbix. Porridge (the breakfast of champions) is probably better. |
Graham L (2) | ||
| 382732 | 2005-08-24 02:47:00 | We *could* but there's a problem. It takes about 1.2 times the amount of electricity to make hydrogen than you get from it. So basicly a kwh of hydrogen costs 1.2 units of power. IE: It costs more to "get" than you get from it. It's effectively running the car from electricity. Agreed. It is annoying seeing glowing and exuberant references in the media about hydrogen cars being the next big thing. This is 3rd form general science. Hydrogen and oxygen atoms are very happy campers when they get together, so it takes a lot of energy to get them apart. Terry and others have discussed this before. Not to say that we won't see hydrogen cars and other uses. This is still a viable source of energy but instead of buying oil, we have to buy electricity to obtain the hydrogen. |
Winston001 (3612) | ||
| 382733 | 2005-08-24 02:51:00 | Not that I'm saying it will happen or not, but can anyone here imagine what would happen if the supply of oil stopped suddenly, or get very expensive (> $5/litre for petrol at the pump) suddenly? How long will it take us to innovate our way out of this catastrophe? |
vinref (6194) | ||
| 382734 | 2005-08-24 03:07:00 | 3 generations at least. Our entire world runs on oil based products,a sudden absence would couse our entire society to crumble. |
Metla (12) | ||
| 382735 | 2005-08-24 06:51:00 | Sellers don't make much if there is an absence,so don't think that is likely. | Cicero (40) | ||
| 382736 | 2005-08-24 07:25:00 | There is a great way of using sea water to convert to a electrical energy, it's called wave generators. It was pioneered in the seventies, used in parts of Europe and Japan. Clean, cheap, renewable energy source that everyone seems to have forgotten in favour of burning coal! You'd think we lived in the stone age. Regarding Hydrogen production, certain progressive parts of Europe seem to have overcome the energy in -> energy out limitations, or at least made it cost effective. In particular Norway - which is bottling and selling the stuff to it's neightbours. Now, if only we could use some of our own innovative thinkers rather than just following the pack. Personally, I think the oil crisis is a timely reminder to make us wake up to better alternatives, before we've utterly ruined the environment. Has anyone been to Malaysia lately... ;) |
Andy1 (8755) | ||
| 382737 | 2005-08-24 07:38:00 | It has been estimated that improving technology and economies of scale will allow wave generators to produce electricity at a cost comparable to wind-driven turbines, which produce energy at about 4 . 5 cents kWh . For now, the best wave generator technology in place in the United Kingdom is producing energy at an average projected/assessed cost of 7 . 5 cents kWh . In comparison, electricity generated by large scale coal burning power plants costs about 2 . 6 cents per kilowatt-hour . Combined-cycle natural gas turbine technology, the primary source of new electric power capacity is about 3 cents per kilowatt hour or higher . It is not unusual to average costs of 5 cents per kilowatt-hour and up for municipal utilities districts . |
Cicero (40) | ||
| 382738 | 2005-08-24 07:41:00 | Wave energy is somewhat inconsistant, which makes it an ass to put into the national grid. However, to use it to cut water up into its component elements could make it very useful indeed! |
personthingy (1670) | ||
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