i'm talking teaming up with america here. give iraq the democracy they want/need and screw the oil.

Considering the amount of flammible liquids, why is oil the only source for gas that can be used for cars?

Because most flammable liquids are synthesized using oil.

There are other fuels used for vehicles, like diesel. This is usually synthesized with oil, but I believe it can also be synthesized from waste and electrical power (defeating the purpose, perhaps).
NOS is something you've probably seen in a Honda Civic. Nitrates and other high explosives are often synthesized using oil, but even if they use natural sources they're extremely inefficient compared to octane. We're talking about an order of magnitude difference in mass and volume per unit of energy. Explosives contain their own oxygen which makes them burn faster, but it's inferior to a similar option (turbocharging).

Now, we could just *burn* hydrogen. When hydrogen is combusted it combines with oxygen forming water. It would produce an explosive energy output, which might be enough to drive a piston. But once again you're dealing with a lower energy output per mass. All of the energy of octane is held up in the chemical bonds, and elemental hydrogen doesn't have chemical bonds! So this is an extremely small amount of energy, and you're dealing with an extremely dangerous tank of fuel - lighter than air and violently explosive. Every car wreck would be a repeat of the Hindenburg disaster.

Hydrogen fuel cells work by passing a hydrogen or hydrogen-containing compound (such as methanol, which is easily extracted from some species of tree) over a platinum catalyst and then near a special polymer film (OIL) called a Proton Exchange Membrane. This allows the Hydrogen + Oxygen -> Water reaction to take place slowly (non-explosively) and causes the reactant's electrons to zip through the car's circuitry before joining the reaction on the other side. It's safe, it's clean, but it'd still produce water and carbon dioxide as reactants. Very little heat exhaust, though, making it theoretically ~30% more efficient than an internal combustion engine (as I understand it).

One potential solution to our material reliance on oil is Thermal Depolymerization (TDP) technology, but it's still unproven, costly to install and it requires large quantities of organic waste to produce a significant amount of oil. The reactor itself is powered partially by burning its byproducts, but it may produce a passable amount of oil at some point in the future.

My girlfriend's neighbour recently got in the news because he used somethinglike sunflower oil to power his old diesel.

[QUOTE=- Tony -]

The US government should start wantonly adding taxes on to things. And have stupefyingly high taxes on inefficient cars.[/QUOTE]


The first sentence I adamantly disagree with. Gas is expensive enough as it is without the governemnt bleeding us dry by inflating the price with tax. $6 a gallon would have disasterous effects on our economy.

THe second sentence I totally agree with. If people want their SUVs so much, let them pay an SUV tax. At least get rid of the SUV tax break that people have been abusing so much lately, and remove SUV smog check exemption.

I heard that you can use a blend of corn oil and ethanol in diesel engines. The only trick is you have to heat the oil-ethanol blend up before you use it to reduce viscosity. This means that you have to start running the car on diesel, but once your secondary fuel warms up enough you can switch over to it.

I'm not sure what kind of electric car you're thinking of.

can't cars burn hemp?

Only the ones produced in Amsterdam.

The kind with batteries. You know, electric? Hydrogen fuel cells != Electric

Where do you think electricity comes from? The moon? :p

I wouldn't know. It's not like I took college electronics or something.

Wait...




Also... Let's all get some of these. Similar to something else I was thinking of. They could also be used exclusively as generators on electric cars so they wouldn't need recharged externally. Or at the least, not so often.

Three words: Cycclone Manet Engine

"CME is the concept of using permanent magnets in a configuration that supplies mechanical power on demand. To offer an alternative to the ubiquitous internal combustion engine that is commercially viable, the technology must imitate the manner and principles that the internal combustion engines operate under. CME believes that it is able to meet this criteria by concentrating development on the control and configuration of the applied magnets. The shape and composition of the magnets is the technical heart of the concept and one of our most guarded secrets."

Problem solved.

Chavez is offering his help with regards to Venezuelan oil. But his main motive is to make Bush look more stupid.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_depolymerization

Why isn't this being used on a wider scale?

EDIT: And CaptBevvil, how does that engine work? It doesn't seem to have an energy source.

http://cycclone.com/welcome/page3.php

You can actually build a mach-up by placing magnets (N up) in a spiral galaxy formation, place an axil in the center, and then attache an armiture to the axil. On the underside of the armiture (starting left-to right) follow a 2-N down 1-S down pattern to the center (mirror this to the other side of the axil). When you slide the armiture down toward the base magnets (those in the spiral patern), it'll begin to spin (causing the axil to spin). Since permanant magnets (particuraily those made of Neodymium Iron Boron (NdFeB)) loose their magnetic property very (extreamly) slowly over time, you esentially have an indefinite power generator.

Just to give you an idea of the power, Neodymium Iron Boron magnets with a rating of 48N tend to be able to support 3000 times their own weight. You can buy a 2" (1" thick) Neodymium magnet for $60.00 and it'll push a 180lb piece of steel (not sure from what distance, though).

But there are so many people already trying to do that. It seems like over kill.

He asked you what the power source is.

What is doing the 'sliding' in the above sentence?

1.47 ****ing $ PER ****ing LITRE.

5.88 a m*********ing gallon

Oops. Too furious to finish my post :

Its supposed to keep going up. And what pisses me off more is that I saw on the news that oilers are making record profit...

I'm just about to murder someone... and brutally so.

Hydrogen Powered!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


I think 90% of car manufacturers have already made atleast one Hydrogen Powered car.

Honda has a home fuel station that plugs into your natural gas line. It provides you with Hydrogen to fill up your hydrogen powered car (remember, exhaust is h2o). Not only does this home fuel station fill up your car but it can power your whole house so all you'd have to pay utitily wise is natural gas, and water.. screw your electric bill and buying fuel from the gas stations..

in 2009 Honda is supposed to be leasing a hydrogen powered motorcycle..

It's the way of the future and the only way to be these high gas prices and exhaust fumes and populated areas.

Remember, if we don't buy gas, the enviromentalists win!

On a serious note, its 1.30 a litre here.

... Hmmm...
I'm thinking of two things right now...
1: Diesel engines that are running on things like oil and fry fat, and all that stuff... that's awesome...
2: In Fight Club, they make soap out of liposuctioned fat... I wonder... taking liposuctioned human fat and turning it... turning it into... vroom vroom...

-A never ending suply of fuel for America. Semi joking with that statement.

"Yep. With enough soap, you could run just about anything."

All I have to say about Americans complaining about gas prices is:

Wow, it worked!

THE MAN ... SPEAKS ... TRUTH!

Us spoiled with cheap gas? Nah - you're burdened with your governments overtaxing your fuel. You actually think that America buys gas for half the price that the UK does?

Whats funny is that there really isn't any shortage of fuel at all. My roomates dad is one of the top execs at Exxon, and told him Exxon actually has a large surplus of fuel right now, but they're really enjoying everyones reaction to the situation since they're making record profits.

[QUOTE=Rogue Leader]Whats funny is that there really isn't any shortage of fuel at all. My roomates dad is one of the top execs at Exxon, and told him Exxon actually has a large surplus of fuel right now, but they're really enjoying everyones reaction to the situation since they're making record profits.[/QUOTE]

I'm not surprised - I think I said earlier that the shortage was self-induced..there are stations here that have no gas, but if people didn't panic and fill everything they could, I'm sure that we'd have more..

Is it true that the gas prices go down at night, more often than not? If so, why?

I would assume gas prices typically change when the station purchases more of it. That would make sense anyway. Which would mean I'm probably wrong.

Maybe because it's not busy, and they'll make more money if they put it off until nighttime? :p