The Pragmatics of Electric Cars

Biodiesel, fuel cells, hydrogen combustion — what do they have in common, besides the hype? They need painful, massive overhauls of the way we get our personal transportation moving. The guys over at Tesla Motors have given all of this a lot of thought and explain why they went with straight-up electric. Here’s a quick look:

• Infrastructure: the so-called “hydrogen economy” is burdened by a few very heavy problems, a significant one being lack of infrastructure (transport and fueling stations). The electrical distribution grid in the US is already in place and far more efficient in total at 92%.
• Production capacity: Electrolysis of hydrogen from water is extremely inefficient, and is most easily produced from natural gas — yet another fossil fuel. Why not just put that electricity right into the grid? The amount of acreage needed for adequate production of biodiesel is staggering, and solar needs only a fraction of the area to produce the same unit of energy.
• Flexibility: Electricity is source-neutral. You can generate it from coal-fired plants, nuclear reactors, hydroelectric dams, wind turbines, and solar panels. The end result is energy that is available everywhere. Oh, and you can put a solar panel on your carport to charge your Roadster. Any excess you generate over what the car needs gets credited to your electric bill. Imagine being payed to drive your car around.
• Net total emission reduction: using one step from source fuel to electricity means that even though the emissions are “shifted,” they are still greatly reduced. In addition, new technology from a Georgia company promises to handle that last pollutant from coal-fired plants: carbon dioxide. Scrubbers take the CO₂ from the smokestack and turn it into crop fertilizer, sequestering the carbon dioxide. And it’s easier to reduce pollutants at a relative few power plant smokestacks than it is at millions of exhaust pipes.
• “A world of 100% hybrid vehicles is still 100% addicted to oil.” — Mark Eberhard, CEO Tesla Motors. Hybrids may be a viable stepping stone to independence from fossil fuels, but they are not the answer to that independence. More pros and cons of hybrids are in the article “Hybrids, Plug-in or Otherwise” at Tesla Motors’s site.

Tesla has come along and shown us that you can build an all-electric car with performance, in this case better than most gasoline automobiles, and have the range of gasoline-powered cars. The technology that is enabling this more than anything is the lithium-ion rechargeable battery, just like in your laptop or iPod. Though auto aficionados are already well aware of the Tesla Roadster, Tesla has yet to make themselves known to the general public, great press coverage notwithstanding. That will change when Tesla’s family sedan appears in 2008-2009. I have a hunch that they’ll sell out of those too, and suddenly GM, Ford, and all the rest will stop wasting time with natural gas, hybrid systems, and fuel cell automobiles for the general car buyer. That day can’t come soon enough. Wanna know more? Check the Tesla Motors White Papers and read “The 21st Century Electric Car” (PDF).

Newsbits and Opinion

Spooky: I love Halloween. I have ever since I was a kid. What other holiday is expressly not about warm fuzzy feelings, but about getting your pants scared off? Well, yeah, scared out of your wits in a safe way — but that’s what so great about Halloween. Spooky, creepy, scary, but ultimately safe. Here’s something fun and different for the spookfest: a 10-room, 10,000 square foot haunted house made of... balloons! I usually abhor cutsy Halloween kitsch, because its supposed to be scary, but sheer scale and creativity trumps traditionalism in this case. [via ABCNews] Geeky: Readers (hello? anyone out there?) may know I like environmentalism. Here’s a guy who put $150,000 of his money where his mouth is: solar panels, a hydrogen-powered car, and the hydrogen even comes from his own electrolyzer. He has his setup powering a hot-tub and a big TV, and all the other goodies. Who says off-grid living has to be spartan? Heartbreaking: Regarding the discovery this week of more remains at the World Trade Center, and that “The discovery of bones angered family members, who want answers about why remains are still turning up five years after the attacks.” I know the grief of these families is real, and to say that they miss their loved ones is a gross understatement, but why is this a surprise? Like everyone else on the planet with access to a TV that day, I watched the collapse over and over, and I’m surprised that people aren’t still discovering remains in Brooklyn, let alone the WTC site. To the grieving families: The rescue and recovery workers at the WTC site can’t be both heroes and incompetent at the same time. They risked their lives and their health to find your loved ones. They are human, and should be forgiven for not finding every single particle of remains. Please don’t validate Ann Coulter’s hateful opinion.

NH3 and Buddhism

Just because I’ve taken to Buddhism doesn’t mean I’ve given up science. Actually, even His Holiness the Dalai Lama will tell you that science and Buddhism are not incompatible. From my jaunts across the net, I’ve also noted that many Buddhists, especially those in America, are also quite aware of and participate in environmental causes. So, I was quite interested to find in my news aggregator an article on Wired News about a new irrigation pump engine fueled by anhydrous ammonia (NH₃). The article points out that a significant infrastructure already exists for the distribution of NH₃, largely due to its use by farmers as fertilizer. I was surprised to learn that there are even pipelines carrying the stuff. Contrast that with the practically non-existent infrastructure for large-scale hydrogen distribution. It should be noted that NH₃ is not a mild chemical. It’s actually very noxious. It’s corrosive and explosive. But we also have to consider that the gasoline we fuel our automobiles with is also pretty nasty stuff. It’s poisonous and, like NH₃, very explosive. It’s that combustibility that makes both potential fuels. So how is NH₃ a fuel? (And are you surprised to consider it a fuel, like I was?) Well, I’m not completely sure, but from what I have read on Wikipedia, normal combustion of NH₃ yields nitrogen and water. I grabbed a scratch pad and worked it out, and I think the reaction goes like this (chemists, correct me if I’m wrong!): 4 NH₃ + 3 O₂ → 2 N₂ + 6 H₂O Four ammonia molecules react with 3 oxygen molecules from the atmosphere — it’s oxidized. This is what has me most excited: the exhaust products are just nitrogen and water! What could be cleaner? Now, you might be concerned about that nitrogen part, but remember that clean pristine air you are breathing right now is almost 80% nitrogen (in the same form as the combustion product, N₂). I imagine there is the possibility that problems in the engine because of improper combustions could lead to the formation of nitric oxides, but according to Wikipedia (ibid) that reaction requires a catalyst such as platinum. I would imagine that it is also possible for other nasty things to come out of the ammonia engine’s exhaust, as small amounts of engine lubricants are combusted as well. But that’s a (probably very minor) problem with any internal combustion engine — gasoline, biodiesel, ethanol or hydrogen. So how does this link to Buddhism, aside from the general notion of the compatibility of it with science? Well, remember how everything is interconnected? How what we do has direct karmic consequences? For me, keeping these things in mind means I should support and be enthusiastic about any new technology that helps me to lessen my impact on our planet and live more responsibly. Though I’m not the best recycler around, and I could certainly drive less, I’m happy to know that maybe one day in the not-so-distant future, I may be driving an automobile fueled by anhydrous ammonia that made its way into my take via a distribution infrastructure that is already in place. To me, this seems like the answer the so-called hydrogen economy has been looking for.