Car producers and governments try to make you buy-in to the electrical automotive hype. Personally, I do not assume it will work, regardless of the subsidies (by governments out of your tax {dollars}) and the heavy promoting by the producers (paid for by you upon a brand new automobile buy). There is a straightforward different.
How to retailer electrical energy
The storage of different (electrical) vitality, as from wind and photo voltaic sources is the true drawback. Compared to gasoline or diesel, even the very best batteries don’t come anyplace near the vitality storage density of the liquid hydrocarbon fuels. Gasoline or diesel have a storage density of roughly 50 occasions that of the very best different. So, why not make gasoline from wind and solar energy slightly than attempting to retailer the electrical vitality straight?
In reality, the method of changing electrical energy to gasoline could be very easy. It requires solely limestone and water (and, in fact, electrical energy).
Chemistry
The chemical discount and conversion of coal to gasoline has been identified and used for some 75 years. It was practiced massive scale in Germany throughout WWII. Using limestone as carbon supply, slightly than coal, requires simply one other step within the course of, additionally identified for hundreds of years. Upon heating, limestone disintegrates to lime (calcium oxide) and carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide is identical materials obtained from burning coal.
The response of carbon dioxide and hydrogen at excessive temperature produces hydrocarbons., i.e. gasoline and diesel merchandise. Hydrogen, in fact, is accessible in limitless quantities upon electrolysis of water. All that’s wanted for that’s electrical vitality.
Technology
The nature of wind and photo voltaic electrical energy makes them very intermittent and unreliable vitality sources. The predominant drawback, due to this fact, is to discover a storage system which may adapt to this variability in vitality manufacturing and, concurrently, is straightforward, cost-effective, and may make use of the present applied sciences and infrastructure.
All the expertise and processes required for the electricity-to-gasoline or diesel conversion have been perfected for a lot of a long time by now. So, why not use them to retailer extremely variable electrical energy from wind and photo voltaic methods to make gasoline or diesel?
This strategy doesn’t require pricey excessive vitality density automotive batteries (not out there), or superconducting transmission strains (not out there), or another new, as but unavailable expertise. Furthermore, in total vitality phrases, it’s no much less vitality environment friendly than batteries and doesn’t require any change in gasoline stations, and many others.
Copyright © 2011, Dr. Klaus L.E. Kaiser
