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Ok, we won't be burning gasoline in a vehicle, we'll be burning it to compress air when refueling. For similar reasons I don't get the fuss about electric "zer
by tx 18y ago
Ok, we won't be burning gasoline in a vehicle, we'll be burning it to compress air when refueling.
For similar reasons I don't get the fuss about electric "zero-emission" cars. Zero? Like electricity just magically comes out of nowhere...
- jcl 18y agoMost likely we wouldn't be burning gasoline to compress air for these cars: gas is expensive. Instead, we'd probably use electricity derived from coal, natural gas, or nuclear, with the possibility of better sources in the future. "Zero-emission" is a reasonable description, as the car itself doesn't give off emissions while running. If you're going to include the emissions given off in the process of producing the fuel, a gasoline-based solution is suddenly much worse, as you need to include the emission costs of finding, extracting, refining, and transporting the gas.
- asp742 18y agoIt's like software. If you cleanly separate the front-end and back-end it's very easy to tune and swap out the back-end without the user noticing.
- tx 18y agoLike your analogy! :) The bigger picture is that we're approaching an energy crisis. That's why gas is getting more expensive, and that is why there is even an interest in these cars to begin with: the message isn't to "separate front end and back end" but to appeal to people who want to save money on energy costs, i.e. gasoline. But it won't work, because gasoline is just the medium, the real beef here is energy, and it's not going to get cheaper because we need more and more of it. It's not only gasoline that's getting expensive, my gas and electric bills are ahead of inflation as well. "Solutions" covered by the press aren't really solving the problem, they're just shifting it around. "Wow! We have an air-powered car!" - without an explanation where the energy to compress that air is going to come from...
- jcl 18y agoIf you assume the problem is "Where will we find energy to sustain our current consumption rate?", then you're right: air-cars aren't a solution. Such a solution might not even exist. But if you assume the problem is "How can we relieve market pressure on our most constrained resource?", air and electric cars are a solution. The hope is that by diversifying the sources of energy used for transportation, we can continue to use oil for other purposes that we haven't found cost-effective replacements for yet -- like plastics and jet fuel. So while the cars won't solve the energy crisis by themselves, maybe they'll buy us enough time to reach the "then a miracle occurs" discovery that does solve it. Or, failing that, maybe they'll help civilization make a slow transition to reduced consumption, rather than a sharp crash.
- khafra 18y agoMaterials science needs to get on the ball and invent Adamantium, from Marvel Comics. Then we can have compressed air-powered airliners.
- run4yourlives 18y agoNot all of us burn stuff to make electricity. In BC, all our power is hydro.
- rw 18y agoWhat we don't need are more dams in our waterways.
- run4yourlives 18y agoWell, you can always live with the lights off then. Given what's currently possible, dams are the best solution to this problem out there.