UUUUUUUUURG. Electric Vehicles

Originally Posted by ThEGr33k

Id do that job too

James may's big idea's.

Damn they have took it off iPlayer, will have to watch it another way later on, thanks for that mate.

Originally Posted by at-sv

Damn they have took it off iPlayer, will have to watch it another way later on, thanks for that mate.

It was a 3 part programme, saw most of the 2nd (was robots/AI) and the 3rd (Power). Was very interesting! Wonder what the 1st one was.

The first one was entitled 'Come Fly With Me' - All about planes, flying and a rocket pack apparently.

[yorkie_chris]

How the hell can you convert CO2 into fuel without a MASSIVE input of energy?

Main problem with electric vehicles is you have many losses, with normal engine you drill for oil, lose a bit refining it, then straight to power.

With electric, losses digging it out, losses producing electricity, losses transmitting it, major losses charging batteries, then you use it... They all add up. Not sure what the exact figures are for total process efficiency exactly though.

Originally Posted by yorkie_chris

How the hell can you convert CO2 into fuel without a MASSIVE input of energy?

The sun, some mirrors and a desert

Originally Posted by yorkie_chris

Main problem with electric vehicles is you have many losses, with normal engine you drill for oil, lose a bit refining it, then straight to power.

With electric, losses digging it out, losses producing electricity, losses transmitting it, major losses charging batteries, then you use it... They all add up. Not sure what the exact figures are for total process efficiency exactly though.

Indeed TERRABLE efficiency. Then there is the fact you cant just fill up, if you run out of power in the middle of no where you are screwed and when you find power you have to wait an age to charge it up.

[yorkie_chris]

I hate to be a thermodynamic pointer-out-of-the-obvious but the sun is a massive source of energy. And you're not going to see much of that next to drax...

However I have not heard of any chemical process by which you can take co2 and water and produce light hydrocarbons.

Originally Posted by yorkie_chris

I hate to be a thermodynamic pointer-out-of-the-obvious but the sun is a massive source of energy. And you're not going to see much of that next to drax...

However I have not heard of any chemical process by which you can take co2 and water and produce light hydrocarbons.

Well im not really a great Chemist but I hear its something to do with using bacteria. As long as you have energy and the raw materials and the knowledge of how to I cant see a reason why you cant.

Drax? I guess you mean over here? I guess we will again have to rely on the hotter countries. Something we wont benefit from unfortunatly being a cold country But then I guess if we can use wind and wave (which we have a LOT of) to power this then I cant see the issues?

[yorkie_chris]

Bacteria ehhh. Anyone got a link to the article?

I haven't seen the show but I think from reading about it this is what other people are saying about the process,

Apparently it is a machine that can create petrol out of carbon dioxide and water by breaking one of the double bonds C=O (carbon dioxide) into Carbon Monoxide C-O and then combining the Carbon Monoxide with a hydrogen atom to form hydrocarbon chains.

It requires a temperature of 2400 degrees C and they are proposing to do this by using solar energy from an array of mirrors and lenses

Known as cracking but it does require a lot more energy to be put into the process than you are going to get out.

Gonna have to watch the program though.

[yorkie_chris]

That was my point, it's never going to be efficient. But if it's done with solar heat then that doesn't really matter.