Re: How to get better MPG when towing???
They are completely implausible - in the same vein as perpetual motion machines.
Not at all - you compress the hydrogen (or bind it in a metal matrix of some sort), and you're golden.
BMW already makes a 200+ HP hydrogen powered sedan, and Ford has tested a 6000lb, 770 HP, car at Bonneville Salt flats which broke 200 MPH.
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Aaron
The BMW Hydrogen 7 is a dual-mode drive, 12-cylinder engine running on either hydrogen or conventional premium gasoline. There are two fuel storage tanks on board, a 19.5-gallon reservoir for gasoline that lasts for about 300 miles, and another tank that stores 17.6 lbs. of liquid hydrogen. On hydrogen alone the Hydrogen 7 can only travel 125 miles, and then switchs over to gasoline. BMW is only building 100 examples of the Hydrogen 7 for public relations purposes world wide. The sedan has no MSRP, and will be loaned out for weeks at a time to high visibility celebrities. The real cost per vehicle, goes into the 7 digit world (not counting R&D), and you would have to drive one into eternity to see any benefit of having one.
Ford beat BMW to the line with real production version by two years with E-450 hydrogen-fueled shuttle buses running in real world conditions. Not as with the BMW, driving “celebs” to the Oscars. They also have Focus fuel cell vehicles, the Mazda RX-8 Hydrogen RE, and the Super Chief, all being produced in numbers since 2006 close to that of the BMW.
About 15 years ago I drove around a test track in Germany with a 2 stroke Ford Fiesta that was also produced in rather large numbers and given out to be tested in the real world. The motor was 75% lighter, had less moving parts, cost less to produce, produced over double the horse power, used +-30% less fuel in the real world, and was cleaner burning, as the smallest engine available in the Fiesta at the time.
It was a blast to drive, a little screamer. Sounded like a “Bat out of Hell”.
What happened to it? The eco press screamed like mad, refusing to look at the real numbers, and compared it to the 40 year old technology used in the East German made 2-stroke Trabants that were all over Europe (after the fall of the wall) at the time. For Public Relation reasons the project was killed. I tried really hard to get one of the test cars but for obvious reasons, Ford said no.
There will be no one shot answer to the energy problems we are facing, there will be many, and the ones real people can afford, are the ones real people will buy.
Car manufactures produce most of these million dollar experiments for the headlines.
I hate to say it but this problem will never get better, as America is now facing new buyers in competition for the same energy we had all to ourselfs in the past.
With number of new auto owners exploding in Asia, India, Eastern Europe and South America, the prices are only going to go up. Because of the limited incomes in these regions, the real cost effective alternative methods of powering transportation, will come first to these markets, and rich America will continue to get the sexy celebrity driven million dollar BMW's.
There are many effective alternatives forms of energy from the past that could be implemented today but people have to want them and buy them.
VW, among all the others, has been building 3 liter per 100 kilometer gasoline Lupos in Germany for years, but know one wants/buys them. They suck to drive. They do make make for great green advertising spots though.
In the neighborhood were we live in Germany, there is one Smart and seven Hummers. Our neighborhood is not one of the rich and famous, it is the lower end of the German working class.
The new breed has to be affordable and fun. If it feels like you are being punished while driving a alternative feul vehicle, real people wont buy them.
“External Combustion” is right, there is no free ride, but there are some cheap ones.
Separate the Corporate PR, from the realities of today.
What can you do now? What 10's of thousands of people in Eastern Europe are doing & that is converting their diesels to run on used French Fry fat, given away by restaurants and filtered at home. But governments don't earn taxes on used fat, so they don't like used fat solutions. We need fuel, they need taxes. If they don't earn money on a new/old technology, we won't get it.
As I said before, it is the simple real world solutions that will prevail, but not in America, it will and is happening in the third world countries.
As far as E85 goes, ask Brazil, they are almost a “alcohol only” country now. VW has stopped all production of their gasoline powered engines there, only making/selling engines designed for locally produced Brazilian alcohol.
How have I personally reduced my gasoline consumption by 35%, while at the same time increasing my top speed by 30 kph (at redline, the gearing won't allow it to go faster), shortening my braking by 25%, and increasing my acceleration dramatically?
By reducing it's total weight from almost 750 kilograms, to 500 kilograms (not counting me). How much did this cost me? $0!
Want a cheap, uses less gas, towing solution? Make your towing vehicle, and the object you tow, go on a diet!
