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What is a Hydro Powered Car?

Sunday, May 3rd, 2009
Bill Mann asked:


What do you think of when you see the term “hydro powered car?” Do you picture the high-tech hydrogen powered cars being developed by companies like BMW? Or do you think of a car that somehow uses water instead of gasoline as fuel? Or perhaps one of those old steam-powered monsters that inventors tinkered with 100 years ago? When I think of a hydro powered car, I think of something slightly different, a cross between an all-hydrogen car and one that somehow uses water as fuel. You can call it a hydrogen-gasoline hybrid. Many people just call it a car that runs on water.

The idea of using water directly as fuel is still science fiction. On the face of it, the idea seems absurd. Yet today you can buy hydro powered car kits that use the hydrogen in water as fuel (to supplement the gasoline) in standard automobiles, resulting in much higher mileage.

Why Should You Care?

This kind of hydro powered car certainly isn’t the futuristic all-hydrogen vehicle you may have heard about, or the seemingly magical vehicle that runs on just tap water that we would all love to have. So why should you care about this kind of hydrogen-gasoline hydro powered car? There are lots of good reasons:

If you’ve bought gasoline recently, you know that the price is high and looks to be heading still higher. A hydro powered car can get much higher mileage than an all-gasoline car, which means big savings on gas.

Gasoline comes with lots of baggage. The West’s dependence on foreign oil makes it dependent on countries like Iraq, Iran, Venezuela, and Russia for energy. External hostility to the West, along with internal instability and unrest, make it scary to rely on many oil-producing countries. Anything that reduces Western dependence on their oil reduces the risks.

The sad fact is that Americans have a tremendous reliance on gas and the steady supply of it. Most simply don’t live in areas where alternative fuels are readily available. Many Americans must endure lengthy commutes to work, traffic jams and rush hour, not to mention routine errands that can’t be accomplished on foot. Public transportation is an option, however many areas of America don’t offer such services.

Don’t forget pollution. Burning gasoline for fuel pollutes the air. A hydro powered car gets better mileage and so reduces that pollution.

Last but certainly not least, you can convert your own car into a hydro powered car today using readily available parts. You don’t need to wait for the ideal hydro powered car to come out of the auto company labs. You can turn your own car into one and start getting the benefits right away.

How Does This Kind of Hydro Powered Car Work?

How can water, the same substance that comes from your kitchen faucet, be used to fuel your car engine? The key is hydrogen. What is water when you go down to the molecular structure? Two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen. Get the hydrogen out of the water and mix it with your car’s gasoline and voila! a hydrogen-gasoline hybrid car.

Hydrogen is a highly desirable source of fuel because it delivers lots of energy and burns with virtually no pollutants. But cars that run solely on hydrogen aren’t ready yet and won’t be practical for a while. Using hydrogen as a supplemental fuel is a safe and effective alternative that’s available right now.

Hydro powered car kits available today use electricity to convert common water into hydrogen and oxygen in your car as needed. The hydrogen is immediately mixed with the car’s gasoline and burned, delivering better fuel efficiency and cleaner exhaust. It is an ideal solution for today’s world, and thousands of people around the world have purchased these kits to convert their own vehicle into a hydro powered car.



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Boots on the Moon - Lunacy Run Amuck

Saturday, May 2nd, 2009
John Woolf asked:


Why would we spend an estimated $104 billion (that’s billion with a ‘B’) to go back to a dead world when ours is dying? It seems no one can come up with a compelling reason for NASA to repeat the “been there- done that” Apollo project of the 60’s and 70’s that President Bush has envisioned. In fact, we have been told by NASA to think of this as “Apollo on steroids.”"Yep, this ill advised and uninspired platitude (yawn) is essentially the very same space vehicle architecture of the 60’s- only a bit beefier. That says it all. There is really nothing new here. If you want to experience the buzz of this cold war relic anew, I would recommend a great book (at a fraction of the $104 billion that it would cost otherwise) Apollo 11: The NASA Mission Reports by Robert Godwin. It truly is a spectacular book, complete with a double sided CD Rom with lots of raw footage of most aspects of the adventure, allowing you to relive the heady days when we trumped the Commies in the space race and brought us such tangible benefits as Tang- the last time around.

And speaking of saving a bundle, when has NASA ever been under budget on any large project? Can you say ‘Space Shuttle’? Get real! Does anyone really believe it will only be $104 Billion? The irony of all this fluff is that it’s likely to be a substantial drain on resources for what actually is working at NASA. The “boots on the moon” program is in contrast to recent, highly spectacular and successful NASA missions, including the Hubble Space telescope, the Mars Rovers, and Explorer missions, which have provided a treasure-trove of scientific information of our universe, while relying on comparatively cheap, safe, unmanned robotic instruments. It is apparent that such programs will have to be scaled back or eliminated in the wake of a much more expensive (with limited return on investment), and dangerous manned moon project. “Trekkies” not withstanding( and perhaps Mr. Bush), it hardly stands up to any rational justification on any level, financial or otherwise, given the serious challenges we currently face in the real world.

Is it not time that we had a truly inspirational, practicable vision for our country in meeting the challenges of our generation?. We don’t have to look far. A blind man could see it in a minute. Remember last year’s hurricane season? The worst on record. With melting polar caps, massive mudslides and other environmental alterations due to global warming, we just might be starting to reap the ecological whirlwind of our blatant greenhouse emissions from fossil fuels. Now is the time to have a renewed “JFK Apollo mission” on the scale, urgency and funding of the Apollo program, to eliminate all fossil fuel based power generation within this decade. Given that we live in an unstable world, such a far-reaching initiative would not only make sense from an ecological, but also from a national security standpoint as well. As James Kunstler points out in his definitive book, The Long Emergency, we have no idea how life altering our condition would be if we suddenly had a serious disruption to our dependency on fossil fuels. A renewable solution for power would go a long way to addressing these germane issues that are bearing down on all of us.

But what do we do? Go solar? Wind? While anything we can do in this arena would help, the truth of the matter is that these alternatives are relatively diffuse in their ability to harness energy and they are intermittent in nature. In other words, their “cost to calorie” ratios are not all that efficient and they are not always dependable. Probably not what we would want for the national power grid. However, imagine having a river that is over a thousand times as massive as the Mississippi, dependably running year round. This vast, untapped, renewable resource of energy would be capable of generating many giga-watts of power for our homes, computers and businesses- and lies just off our shores in the form of perpetual ocean currents. Perhaps the most famous of these “ocean rivers”"is the Gulf Stream, running nearest to us around the tip of Florida and up the cost of the Carolinas. While not particularly fast moving, (just a few miles per hour) the kinetic energy of the Gulf Current is massive, being about 60 miles across. Given that ocean water is 832 more dense than the atmosphere at sea level, this translates into an equivalent hurricane force wind night and day- miles across and running over a thousand miles along our eastern shores. And this seminal approach doesn’t require NASA rocket science to harness the capacity of generating large-scale sustainable electrical power. By using existing hydro turbine technology, clean, low cost power could be generated underwater, out of sight, with no greenhouse gases, and with minimal impact to sea life as the hydro turbines (albeit with high torque) would turn at just a few rpm allowing virtually unimpeded fish and silt migration.

However, like the continental rail road of the 19th century, or the Apollo project of the 20th century, this 21st century project would also be colossal in scale requiring federal funding to accomplish the task- at least at first. If we unleashed our best minds of industry and science to this endeavor, and invested the $104 billion now erroneously slated for the moon into an array of marine power generation farms, we would be addressing the challenge of this, the 21st century. Future generations might view us as wise stewards of our charge, who on our watch, with our boots well grounded on earth, made the prudent choice.



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Posted in Hydro Fuel

New Concept of Green & Energy-saving Lighting - LED Light

Friday, May 1st, 2009
ELECOSN asked:


LEDs are solid-state semiconductor devices that convert electrical energy directly into light.

Thermal sources of light such as flames and incandescent filaments emit light when heated, either by chemical reaction (flames) or electrical heating (filament lamps). LED “cold” generation of light leads to high efficacy because most of the energy radiates within the visible spectrum.

Other common high efficiency light sources, such as fluorescent lamps and electro luminescent devices, also produce light without much thermal radiation outside the visible spectrum.

Because LEDs are solid-state devices, they can be extremely small and durable; they also provide longer lamp life than other sources.

Light is generated inside the chip, a solid crystal material, when current flows across the junctions of different material compositions.

An LED consists of two elements of processed material called P-type semiconductors and N-type semiconductors. These two elements are placed in direct contact, forming a region called the P-N junction. The composition of the different materials determines the wavelength and therefore the colour of light generated.

LED resembles most other diode types, but there are important differences. The LED has a transparent package, allowing visible or IR energy to pass through. Also, the LED has a large PN-junction area whose shape is tailored to the application. The device shown in Figure 1 is an AlGaInP LED because the semiconductor layers are aluminum (Al), gallium (Ga), indium (In), and phosphate (P).

Main LED materials

The main semiconductor materials used to manufacture LEDs are:

*Indium gallium nitride (InGaN): blue, green and ultraviolet high-brightness LEDs

*Aluminum gallium indium phosphide (AlGaInP): yellow, orange and red high-brightness LEDs

*Aluminum gallium arsenide (AlGaAs): red and infrared LEDs

*Gallium phosphide (GaP): yellow and green LEDs

 

Why LEDs?

LEDs have a range of benefits which is fast making them the best solution for real energy efficient lighting. Over the course of the next few years some aspects are expected to change significantly.

Lifetime

As solid-state light sources, LEDs have a very long lifetime and are generally very robust due to no mechanical or moving parts.

Incandescent bulbs have an expected lifetime of 1k to 5k hours, while good quality LEDs are often quoted of having a lifetime of 50k hours, more than 5 years continuous use. However it is important to to understand that the performance of LEDs degrades over time, and this degradation is strongly affected by factors such as operating current and temperature.

Low maintenance

The long lifetime of LEDs reduces the need to replace failed lamps, and this can lead to significant financial and environmental savings, particularly in maintenance, labour and recycling. This makes LED fixtures useful for installations in inaccessible locations, but if tasks like cleaning the light fixture are required, then the light sources could be replaced at the same time, negating the “low maintenance” advantage.

Efficiency

As a semiconductor device, LEDs are highly efficient. Current device technology is allowing the performance of these to be pushed to limits that exceed that of standard lighting.

The directional nature of light produced by LEDs allows the design of luminaires with higher overall efficiency.

Low power consumption

The low power consumption of LEDs leads to large energy savings that can often drive the installation of LED-based systems. Initial purchase costs start off higher, but can be proven to return the investment cost in a short period of time.

Brightness

Light outputs are constantly being increased and there are several products that have higher lumen output than traditional lighting.

Heat

LEDs do not produce heat in the form of infrared radiation (IR) unlike incandescent bulbs which makes them hot to the touch.

This lack of heat production allows LED fixtures to be used in locations where heating from conventional sources would cause a particular problem e.g. illuminating food, textiles, artifacts, etc.

However, LEDs do produce heat at the semiconductor junction within the device and good thermal management must be employed on high power devices to maintain operation life

Cost

In many applications, LEDs are expensive compared with other light sources, when measured by metrics such as “£-per-lumen”.

LED manufacturers continue to work towards reducing their production costs while at the same time increasing the light output of their devices.

However, the high initial cost of LED-based systems is offset by lower energy consumption, lower maintenance costs and other factors.

The initial cost may seem high, but take into account the electricity usage that is saved, they pay for themselves.

Electricity Cost savings from switching to LED Direct replacement bulbs

10W LED Bulbs Vs 75W halogen bulb running cost comparison

 

Small form-factors

LEDs are very small - typical high-brightness LED chips measure 0.3 mm by 0.3 mm, while high-power devices can be 1 mm x 1 mm or larger. There are many examples where the availability of small, high-brightness devices have enabled significant market advancement. The obvious example is in mobile phone handsets, where blue, green and white LEDs are now used in most models to back light keypads and liquid-crystal display (LCD) screens.

Instantaneous switch-on

LEDs switch on rapidly, even when cold, and this is a particular advantage for certain applications such as vehicle brake lights.

Colour

LEDs are available in a broad range of brilliant, saturated colours (although performance varies across the spectrum), and white devices are also available. Modules containing different colored LEDs (typically red, green and blue, or RGB) can be tuned to a huge range of colours, and easily dimmed. RGB modules provide a much wider gamut of colours than white LEDs or other traditional white light sources, which is a particular advantage in applications such as backlighting liquid-crystal displays (LCD’s).

RGB LEDs and colour mixing

LED characteristics change with time, temperature and current, and from device to device. For RGB LEDs, the performance of different colored devices changes at different rates. This can result in variation of lamp colour and intensity, and poor reproducibility.

LED Vs Halogen

LED Lighting Types

 

Now the LED bulbs are widely applied in household, office, street, shop, park etc for decoration and lightings LED lighting family mainly includes:

1. LED ball lamp

2. LED spot lamp

3. LED ground lamp

4. LED tube light

5. LED rope lamp

6. LED pool lamp

7. LED curtain lamp

8. LED Christmas (festival) lamp

9. LED ceiling lamp

10. LED road light

11. LED Solar light

Etc.

In a word, LED lightings will be the future of lighting, and it will definitely replace the halogen lights in soon future.



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Posted in Green Energy