Most Efficient, Low Cost Energy Storage

[Hyperspeed]

An interesting thought occurred to me the other day after reading a bit of news on the Teletext...

It said that Firemen had to be called out one day to an office block where a man was giving off charges of static so high that he was scorching the carpet around him. Don't ask what the firemen did but it was discovered that his nylon/polyester jacket was holding a charge of 20,000 volts.

How that occurred I do not know, I've tumbled dried synthetics before and they've given me shocks but that is crazy.

Now, is it not possible that batteries could in future be wearable? Could wearable computers source their energy from the very fabric they are attached to/woven inside?

Also, according to some website (might have been Project X) experiments have been done with flywheels and anti-gravity, the flywheel has broken from it's spindle - destroying a room and failing to stop under friction for several days.

The disadvantage to flywheels to power cars/planes would be their weight I suppose. And unless the car was nailed to the floor there'd have to be counter-rotation taking place (if a helicopter didn't have a tail rotor it would spin with it's rotor).

[Hyperspeed]

I don't understand how you could make a flywheel out of carbon fibre. Surely it would need to be a)heavy to keep momentum & b)magnetic?

Cars of the future should be like Honda's solar powered effort but with a more SUV/4x4 structure to appeal to the US market.

I've heard of some concept where a vehicle's kinetic energy when braking can be sent into a flywheel, it might even have been built.

Another novel new idea that has come to light lately is the fact that diesel engines will happily run off cooking oil. A simple modification means the fuel source won't line your cylinders with crispy bits from the fryer and some companies even offer dual-fuel option (the cooking oil goes in the boot/trunk and you can switch from the dashboard between Flora/Esso).

[Hyperspeed]

So why are we lining up at gas stations making the Saudi sheiks and the Texas cowboys rich when we could be filling subsidised and unused farmland with sunflowers and peanuts?

I'm not quite sure of the legality of running a car in the UK on sunflower oil but I've heard of one guy who got permission to pay excise duty and he got around it. He wasn't filtering his oil at all because he said the engine would probably die before it clogged with whatever (buy an old diesel folks and run it to death!).

Surely solar panels could be made to be more efficient if the energy was somehow directed into a flywheel so as the car is moving it only needs a trickle charge, a bit like a dog will eat it's food as you're still pouring the biscuits!

:-)

[Hyperspeed]

Wow, that methanol technique certainly sounds risky for your eyes!

I think it's definately worth trying though, just keep the place at a good temperature and ventilate.

To hell with the oil barons, that'll teach them to buy up all the fuel cell patents and destroy them!

:-D

Shell announced yesterday that they made a record profit of 12.3 billion GBP last year. The crooks pass on every hike in the oil prices within minutes of Opec raising them, even though the barrels take a few months to reach the refining stage. And Bush has the audacity to say on Monday "The US needs to cut it's addiction to oil"...

[Hyperspeed]

Isn't that Skycar thing using Methanol now, either that or Ethanol because one was a health hazard.

I'd say the bicycle is very energy efficient but the source of that energy is a bio-reactor - the human gut! I've read recently that scientists have made a lawn mower that is powered by the very clippings it cuts (wit the use of a bacteria engine).

There are companies now producing magnetic bearings too, ones that don't need balls but just levitate around the central ring with powerful magnets. Maybe this is going to increase car efficiency in the next decade.

Personally, I like the look of that 4,000 GBP hydrogen fuel cell motorbike they unveiled in London last year. 100 miles on a single charge, top speed of 50MPH and completely emission free & silent.

:-)