damn this thread is still going.....i still am dreaming of the car that runs on beer...i think of all the chaff wasted, when all you'd need is some enzymes to ferment it....
i still am dreaming of the car that runs on beer...i think of all the chaff wasted, when all you'd need is some enzymes to ferment it....
You don't strike me as someone who would want to divert beer that could go in your stomach.
making my own car fuel would be so awesome!
calories out of the food supply without replacing them.
There are still plenty of people in the world dealing with malnutrition.
The US corn crop has been averaging around 13 billion bushels/year. Fifty-six pounds per bushel, 2.15 gallons of ethanol per bushel. Works out to just under 28 billion gallons of ethanol if the entire corn crop was converted. To produce enough ethanol to replace all the gasoline used in this country would require planting over 400 million acres, compared to the current 91 million. In reality, it would take around 500 million acres, or so, because ethanol contains a lot fewer BTUs than gasoline. There aren’t that many acres of arable land in North America, and most of the land suitable for corn production is already planted to corn. So, no, it wouldn’t be easy to grow 10 times as much corn. In fact, it wold be impossible.
what do they do currently with the corn stalks?
... a few extra bucks for gas?
How are you so sure that it would be as low as "a few extra bucks"?
Also, replacing batteries at the cost of the consumer is rare so far, unless you're looking at early Nissan Leafs. They're doing real world tests of swappable batteries, and those only take about 10 minutes and doesn't involve much effort for the driver. It's more common to recharge. And charging tech (speed) is improving all the time.
i'm betting you ethanol is the future, not electric...
i'm saying i'd rather pay $10-15 for a gallon of ethanol, then buy an electric car.....and if cellulose can be enzymatically broken down to sugar, like mashing starch....source is unlimited....all the paper that ends up in landfills, yard waste....i'm betting you ethanol is the future, not electric...because we will run out a composted algea underground...it'd be a better solar panel, and more convient.....
Would it not seem simpler (and cheaper) to put some silicon wafers, with no moving parts, out in the free unlimited sunlight and collect all the energy you need to drive and also run your house?
Also I hear there are a lot of people around these parts that believe alcohol is for drinking and not burning!
drinking and not burning!
this is general chit chat, i'm getting an urge to punch faces and take names!
mr. henry ford original deisgned the car to run on ethanol......if i remember my tv watching documentaries......the only way electric cars will be viable, is if they start fueling them with nuclear rods...like big boats....
in fact how big of a nuclear rod would a compact car need? only way i see electric better then liquid fuel..like old steam engine trains....burning coal...
Not me. I'm fantasizing over one that runs on spent grains. Imagine all the beer I'd just have to brew. SWMBO'd would be all, like, "Hey, Honey. Why don't you order another twenty or so 55# sacks of grain from More Beer? I need to fuel up so I can get to the hairdresser."damn this thread is still going.....i still am dreaming of the car that runs on beer...i think of all the chaff wasted, when all you'd need is some enzymes to ferment it....
Not me. I'm fantasizing over one that runs on spent grains. Imagine all the beer I'd just have to brew. SWMBO'd would be all, like, "Hey, Honey. Why don't you order another twenty or so 55# sacks of grain from More Beer? I need to fuel up so I can get to the hairdresser."
Cellulose ethanol is a thing, it's just harder and more expensive to make than the stuff from from corn grain.
Bolts are going through a thing. A problem developed with 9 hundredths of a percent of Bolt batteries, so they've halted production while they replace all the batteries in a recall.
i'm betting you ethanol is the future, not electric...
Cattle are supposed to eat grass, not corn or it’s remnants.If it's that difficult to get energy out of something with fairly simple carbohydrates, how difficult would it be to get energy out of cellulose.
Corn stalks have a variety of uses. In a lot of dairy &/or beef operations they're chopped up with the corn, go through anaerobic fermentation, and are fed to the cattle.
They're also made into round bales. On my family's farm, we'd mostly use these for cattle bedding. When we'd run short of silage in the late summer, and if the previous year's bales were still in good shape, we'd occasionally just put a bale in the feeder every few days and they'd eat those, stretching our supply of silage.
nuclear. So much depends on it, from powering our cities to powering space travel. That's where we need the breakthroughs. Just a safe little nuclear-powered sterling engine in the trunk.
Cattle are supposed to eat grass, not corn or it’s remnants.
Yea, the remedy for current owners isn't pretty, but not as bad as risking a house fire.
your hands aren't blood free, and there's significant loss transmit the electrons over distance....
Someone hasn’t been doing his homework.
EV’s are not as clean as you’d hope, but the MPG equivalence of using coal to generate and then charge an EV is still leaps and bounds ahead of burning gas in your car. The bigger question is the cleanliness of mining/processing and the recycling/disposing of the metals used to manufacture batteries. I’m not yet convinced that batteries are the ultimate answer. I wouldn’t count hydrogen fuel cells out just yet, especially for Aviation/Railway/Shipping/Trucking applications where supply infrastructure would be easier to establish.maybe not...just someone that is dreading having to plug my car in to go to the store......i don't even like it when i have to charge my battery, because i haven't driven in a few weeks...to get the thing to start..
and if you look at that PDF, most of kent's power is generated, by burning coal...to turn a electric motor, generates power...and then he FEELs clean because it's electricity now! all good! like the red stuff in a steak is 'juice'...or throwing a crab or lobster in boiling water is just 'clean air escaping them'....
Railway
I hear that argument a lot but just look at the environmental disasters that are caused by drilling for unrenewable oil as well as the geopolitical messes and war it causes. Conversely there isn’t anything in an EV battery that is un-recyclable. Hydrogen’s problem as an energy storage medium is it is half as efficient as just storing and using directly the electricity used to make the H2 in the first place. Not to mention all the other associated problems of high pressure or cryogenic storage, hydrogen embrittlement etc.EV’s are not as clean as you’d hope, but the MPG equivalence of using coal to generate and then charge an EV is still leaps and bounds ahead of burning gas in your car. The bigger question is the cleanliness of mining/processing and the recycling/disposing of the metals used to manufacture batteries. I’m not yet convinced that batteries are the ultimate answer. I wouldn’t count hydrogen fuel cells out just yet, especially for Aviation/Railway/Shipping/Trucking applications where supply infrastructure would be easier to establish.
Nuclear won't go anywhere until they come up with a permanent solution for dealing with the waste. Also, when things go wrong, they go really wrong - Three Mile Island, Fukushima, Chernobyl ...nuclear. So much depends on it, from powering our cities to powering space travel. That's where we need the breakthroughs. Just a safe little nuclear-powered sterling engine in the trunk.
Nuclear won't go anywhere until they come up with a permanent solution for dealing with the waste. Also, when things go wrong, they go really wrong - Three Mile Island, Fukushima, Chernobyl ...
Brew on
Nuclear won't go anywhere until they come up with a permanent solution for dealing with the waste.
Years ago I had a professor who had worked on molten salt reactors. In theory, they look very good, but my prof said that they hadn't been able to develop alloys that would stand up to the molten salt over long periods of time. Has this situation changed?We've known how to make fast neutron reactors since the 50's that are capable of consuming actinides (the really bad stuff with long half lives) and are more fuel efficient. There were at least 20 examples of FNR built and run over the years. Fast spectrum molten salt reactors not only burn down their own waste but can also be fueled with the stockpiles of nuclear waste we have already generated.
There are proven tested ways to produce nuclear power with very little waste, we just need the will to do it.
Years ago I had a professor who had worked on molten salt reactors. In theory, they look very good, but my prof said that they hadn't been able to develop alloys that would stand up to the molten salt over long periods of time. Has this situation changed?