October 7, 2004
CHILD'S PLAY (via The Other Brother):
Powered by sunlight: Student project leaps into future (Bob Golfen, Oct. 1, 2004, The Arizona Republic)
The ungainly looking Chevy pickup parked in the courtyard at Central High School, with a huge set of solar panels mounted on top, may not look so futuristic.But it certainly points the way.
Hand-built on a shoestring budget by a Central physics teacher and a team of students, the truck is one of a kind, a demonstration of how future transportation can be self-sustaining and pollution-free.
The truck is hydrogen-powered and creates its own fuel from solar energy and water, a technical feat that rivals the advanced technology being researched by major auto companies and universities. The four-cylinder engine is tuned to run on hydrogen, which is produced by a hand-built electrolysis system mounted in the bed.
Teacher Cory Waxman and his students took four years to build the experiment, believed to be the only self-sustaining hydrogen vehicle that uses a conventional internal-combustion engine.
"Nobody has ever made a car that runs on sunlight and water," Waxman said. "There are other cars that run on hydrogen, but they don't make their own fuel."
Built for less than $10,000, the project has caught the attention of experts in alternative-fuel research.
So a bunch of kids did what all y'all scientific-types say can't be done? Posted by Orrin Judd at October 7, 2004 3:30 PM
Oh, darn, the marketing niche for pickup trucks with a top speed of a couple of miles per day has now been filled.
Heck, go to the local edu-toy store and you can buy a make-it-yourself fuel cell. Strap a couple dozen to the Blazer and you, too, can go a couple of miles.
(Sorry to be such a potty mouth, but you've irked me.)
Posted by: David Cohen at October 7, 2004 4:10 PMLet's assume you live on the equator, and get 100% efficiency from the solar panels, and the electrolysis, and the engine, and that you drive the car 1 hour/day. We'll also assume the panels on the car are 5mx3m (about the size of a Suburban?).
So, if you charge it 24 hours/day, and drive it 1 hour a day, you'll have enough fuel to generate(scribble scribble...)
54 Horsepower.
In practice, you'll be lucky to get a quarter of that.
It's a cute demonstration, but that's about it.
Posted by: mike earl at October 7, 2004 4:14 PMWebsite's at http://www.centralphysics.com/index.htm.
And the article did specifically say that this isn't meant to be the finished project, just an example of what can be done. Someone else will look at this, get an inspiration, and build something better. Eventually we get some better vehicles because of it.
Posted by: Just John at October 7, 2004 4:18 PMAlthough I like the fact that these kids and their teacher have publicized what we might be doing with alternative energy and a hydrogen economy, I have to echo David.
This clearly ain't ready for prime time.
However, for the do-it-yourselfers out there, there are inexpensive kits that you can buy and bolt on to your engine, that generate hydrogen and feed it into the fuel line.
It doesn't replace gasoline or diesel, it's merely an additive.
The inventor/tinkerer at the site that I like claims that it'll increase fuel milage by up to 20%.
www.hydrogen-boost.com
Posted by: Michael Herdegen at October 7, 2004 4:30 PMWhat if we bolted a system like this onto a golf cart, or a Segway.
Given the much lower weight, would that be a practical vehicle for short commutes in the Southwest ?
Posted by: Michael Herdegen at October 7, 2004 4:35 PMMH -
A segway with a 10-by-20 foot solar panel mounted on it?
Those are already battery powered; if you want to put solar panels on your roof to charge the thing, be my guest, but you may as well run your refrigerator off the power at that point.
Posted by: mike earl at October 7, 2004 4:44 PMMichael -- They didn't use a pick-up truck by accident. The problem with fuel cell vehicles is not fuel cells, which are old, robust technology (though they will need to be improved substantially to be economical). The big problem with fuel cell vehicles right now is storing the hydrogen safely, which takes big heavy gas tanks for those of use who do wish to travel more than a couple of miles from home and back in a day.
Posted by: David Cohen at October 7, 2004 4:51 PM"y'all scientific-types say can't be done"
I am not a scientific type (ha), but your implication is that science/engineering is anti clean fuel, anti efficiency. I think there are many engineers (and most especially capitalist) who would love to deliver this product or something similar to the public. Oddly most investment in such technology is being done by mean and hateful oil companies.
And by the way they will get there.
Posted by: h-man at October 7, 2004 4:56 PMI don't see a 0-to-60 mph time here.
'Cause it can't get to 60?
One factor that's neglected is how much labor is needed to build and maintain this thing? Because those costs have to be factored in, also.
The first personal computers were cheap, too. I know, I had or worked on machines like an Altair 8800a, an Exidy Sorcerer, a Sol-80 and an Intel 8085 prototyper board. But they were labor intensive to build and keep running (bootstrapping meant toggling in a short program to load a program from cassette) and there wasn't much you could do with 1K of memory and a small b/w screen and a PL/M cross compiler that ran on a PDP-10.
Posted by: Raoul Ortega at October 7, 2004 5:56 PMThis all wouldn't be necessary if that Exxon-Shell-GM-Ford cabal hadn't stolen that 200 MPG carbureator my Granddad had.
"Why go more than a few miles?"
To get you to the Red Sox world series games?
All the sunlight it collects in New Hampshire in January isn't going to get it to the market.
Now, a solar-powered, fuel cell driven radio might work, if you don't mind spending $10,000 for a radio.
Posted by: David Cohen at October 8, 2004 2:58 PMDavid:
Human ears are sensitive; radios need almost no power, so a solar radio is quite feasible.
Posted by: mike earl at October 8, 2004 3:46 PM