The first paragraph explains why we'll never see it happen. Our cars will be powered by capacitors, no iron batteries, no that fusion engine that runs on thorium.
What is really needed for a car though is a way to use heat directly for propulsion. Currently, all forms of heat energy power use steam boilers to spin a turbine.
Heat to electricity - bypassing the steam to turbine stages - would also be way easier for storage. A lot of things could be heated during excess power generation, and then used for electricity when needed.
If that were to ever be developed, the power system would greatly change.
Fusion would most likely run on hydrogen. Fission could be done on thorium.
Seems like a lot of typing to demonstrate you understood how ridiculous I was trying to sound, but cool.
What thermal masses are you suggesting for "a lot of things could be heated" during times of excess power generation? Where and how are these items situated to not lose all that heat? How are we getting the energy back out? One really big or a bunch of really small peltier modules? They tried those under solar panels to increase efficiency. Any other ideas on how to skip the mechanical stage? High pressure steam works really goddamn nice.
High pressure steam works in the right conditions - with a lot of cooling water, and only gets about 30% efficient.
As I said, IF somebody developed a way to convert heat directly to propulsion or electricity, then the power system would change dramatically.
Heat pumps work by exchanging the ambient temperature with the large thermal mass deep in the earth. Heat in the winter and cool in the summer.
Depending on the "invention" and the required temperature difference, there could be storage in different ways - molten metals to just using the thermal mass of water or the ground.
It's a dream, but it would seem to get the power system efficiency above the 30% range. And could then be potentially made more portable - cars, or even smaller.
If they can make it work and scale it up to be somewhat comparable to lithium ion in cost this will make electric vehicles more viable than they are now, grid limitations not withstanding.
[ + ] natehiggers
[ - ] natehiggers 1 point 3.3 yearsJan 18, 2022 16:58:38 ago (+1/-0)
[ + ] Spaceman84
[ - ] Spaceman84 [op] 1 point 3.3 yearsJan 18, 2022 17:01:02 ago (+1/-0)
[ + ] ruck_feddit
[ - ] ruck_feddit 0 points 3.3 yearsJan 18, 2022 17:51:21 ago (+0/-0)
[ + ] lord_nougat
[ - ] lord_nougat 0 points 3.3 yearsJan 18, 2022 18:06:00 ago (+0/-0)
[ + ] ruck_feddit
[ - ] ruck_feddit 0 points 3.3 yearsJan 18, 2022 19:00:47 ago (+0/-0)
[ + ] localsal
[ - ] localsal 0 points 3.3 yearsJan 18, 2022 18:22:43 ago (+0/-0)
Fission could be done on thorium.
What is really needed for a car though is a way to use heat directly for propulsion. Currently, all forms of heat energy power use steam boilers to spin a turbine.
Heat to electricity - bypassing the steam to turbine stages - would also be way easier for storage. A lot of things could be heated during excess power generation, and then used for electricity when needed.
If that were to ever be developed, the power system would greatly change.
[ + ] ruck_feddit
[ - ] ruck_feddit 0 points 3.3 yearsJan 18, 2022 18:55:55 ago (+0/-0)
Seems like a lot of typing to demonstrate you understood how ridiculous I was trying to sound, but cool.
What thermal masses are you suggesting for "a lot of things could be heated" during times of excess power generation? Where and how are these items situated to not lose all that heat? How are we getting the energy back out? One really big or a bunch of really small peltier modules? They tried those under solar panels to increase efficiency. Any other ideas on how to skip the mechanical stage? High pressure steam works really goddamn nice.
[ + ] localsal
[ - ] localsal 0 points 3.3 yearsJan 19, 2022 01:47:51 ago (+0/-0)
As I said, IF somebody developed a way to convert heat directly to propulsion or electricity, then the power system would change dramatically.
Heat pumps work by exchanging the ambient temperature with the large thermal mass deep in the earth. Heat in the winter and cool in the summer.
Depending on the "invention" and the required temperature difference, there could be storage in different ways - molten metals to just using the thermal mass of water or the ground.
It's a dream, but it would seem to get the power system efficiency above the 30% range. And could then be potentially made more portable - cars, or even smaller.
[ + ] ruck_feddit
[ - ] ruck_feddit 0 points 3.3 yearsJan 19, 2022 03:50:30 ago (+0/-0)
[ + ] Spaceman84
[ - ] Spaceman84 [op] 0 points 3.3 yearsJan 18, 2022 18:42:58 ago (+0/-0)
[ + ] ruck_feddit
[ - ] ruck_feddit 0 points 3.3 yearsJan 18, 2022 19:00:21 ago (+0/-0)