Could the answer to our transport needs have been right in front of our faces all this time?Conventional cars work by exploding fuel and air in a chamber to exert force on the pistons, but what if rather than using an explosion to provide that pressure on the piston, you just stored your ‘fuel’ at a constant high pressure. That’s the concept behind the air car, and it looks like a pretty promising technology. Like hydrogen the air is not actually the source of energy, it is the storage medium, but...
The more I delve into this topic the more detail I want to address, so rather than cover all three energy storage options in this post I’ve decided to give a more detailed look at hydrogen. Keep a look out for a look at compressed air and battery electric in the next two weeks. Hydrogen is the darling of the media, car manufacturers and oil companies alike. The general public seems fairly convinced that hydrogen vehicles are going to be the way of the future and a simple replacement for oil. Just...
Last week we established that the so called green car is a myth; cars are inherently harmful to the environment. Despite this, most of us would like to carry on using our cars because; let’s face it, they are really convenient. Those of us lacking the environmental zeal to give up the mixed blessing of the automobile are left to seek an alternative to the current expensive black stuff that has us hooked. What are the options for a recovering oilaholic? Well this week I’m going take a rather critical...
Over the next three weeks I’ll be running a series on ‘green cars’. This week is Part 1 the Myth of the Green Car, next week I’ll be looking at alternative fuels and in the final post I’ll try and un-greenwash the Electric Car. The Myth of the Green Car.
Can Cars be good for the Environment?
Electric, hybrid, efficient diesel, hydrogen and bio-fuelled vehicles are all the more frequently being advertised as the eco-friendly alternative by car manufacturers, but...
Early in the nineteenth century substantial money could be made shipping Tea from China to England. The East India Companies' Monopoly on the trade had recently ended and at the time a high demand (and price) was placed on the first tea of the season. Fast light ships called clippers were developed in order to beat the bigger slower ships back to England with the first fruits of the tea harvest. Competition grew and an annual race developed. The boats were refined and redesigned; every few years...
