I believe the environmental problem is actually problem of entropy. Any material created by man can be assimilated as fuel and broken down by Nature.
The issue is time:
Nature requires a few billion years to figure out how to do this. Humans are capable of introducing new entropy into the system faster than the system can absorb it.
As a contextual example of this, humans are capable of reducing oxygen. However, if plant life behaved like humans and thus was able to instantly reproduce 100% pure oxygen this oxygen would burn our lungs and we would not be able to accept it.
We must be wiser now. With fewer opportunities to make mistakes.
Mazda 2 2012.. 70+ mpg (reporting 72mpg in regular use in Japan - now)
available in US.. within year?..
Nearing 35% effiency! - approaching Diesel (40%?)
To bad we can only get 1/2 the diesel from a barrel of oil (compared to gas) .. and alternate diesel fuels haven't become cost effective / available as gas.
The new Mazdas have many of the suggested improvements mentioned in the comments.
Most under the "skytech" or "skyactiv" title.
Gas engine with 14.5 to 1 compression using regular gas!
I-stop tech (smart stop of engine - no idling at stops)
Last month's consumer's report on cars.. indicated the Mazda3 with similar tech will be available in US this fall ( not as good on mpg.. but much better than prior version)
Electric cars.. It would be nice if they could carry the 5-10 megawatts of storage (equal to a tank of gas).
Or if they could get their charge from a clean source/ be charged in a few minutes, etc....
It will be a few more years before they are ready to take the place of gas vechicles. Too big of difference in energy storage.
It should be noted .. electric cars - even if charge is derived from a "clean" source are NOT close to "polution free".
Solar is better than fusion, and its free! All I have to figure out is how to store enough energy for night and bad weather. Batteries are too heavy and not energy dense enough, I have some concepts not yet worked out.
All the parts have been modeled in Solid Works, the components use advanced ceramics, and ferrite. I'm negtiating with ceramic people in Austrailia to get first parts. I'm seeking money from VC's or DOE to get a demo vehicle built.
It would be like when I introduced the micro-computer in Las Vegas in 1971, there were a bunch of college guys there arguing with me that I could not have been educated in the USA, I wonder where those guys are now?
To think that by 2025 we'd still doing something so primitive as burning stuff to get energy is absurd!
Vehicles will be powered by "Mr. Fusion" long before that. As soon as October 2011, Rossi E-Cat's will be demonstrated. If not those, Steorn ORBO's, Focus Fusion reactors, and some of a dozen or more devices just waiting to come to the forefront, and they will, inspite of the efforts of suppression.
Historians will look back at the era of petroleum energy as a weird anomaly.
I have been touting the invention of the FCHTMC engine, which in a car or truck size weights less than 40 lbs., requires no maintenance for 20 years except air filter changes if you use fuel, it is compatible with nine fuels and concentrated solar input technology. The system burns fuels lean in a matrix for maximum heat output then captures nearly 90% of that heat energy to utilize in the engine.
The engine has energy storage built into it. Patent # 7980080 issued 7/19/2011, has three embodiments, so far, a small four cylinder, and two larger six cylinder versions.
Patent application 11515501 Solar Tracking energy beam concentrator (portable) Solar beam receiver, application 11936761 a very low turn force dynamo, application 13087138 Energy Management. Several more in the process of filing. An electronics interface package with CAN/LIN and USB interfaces. Selectable output 48VDC 10 to 250A, 125VAC 20 to 125A, 250VAC 30 to 85A.
The whole system reduces the weight of the drive train which becomes electric.
There's also some new electric motor stuff in application 13087138.
With this package 70 to 90 mpg or better is a slam dunk!
Bicycle tires have low drag but are murder going around turns. 1/2" wide gearbox gears offer low drag but all hell lets loose if you drop the clutch hard.
"Air" is already 79% of atmosphere... what leaks from tires is not likely the nitrogen but the other gases. So you want to demand membrane filters at all air pumps for filling tires?
The car companies have spent billions developing elaborate systems to keep over weight high center of gravity chunky slobering SUV's from tipping over when the brakes are applied. The energy efficiency of these vehicles is only about 12%, same as 1950. It's all about what they can sell in the show room. Cars are transportation appliances, but they are sold to the consumer as a way to express their personalities, and the dopes fall into line. It's kind of pathetic that so many individuals self esteem is based on the approval of a car salesman!
For years the car companies built trucks which were exempt from many of the car regulations such as bumper heights and emissions and the public paid a premium for them even though they had substandard low efficiency powertrains. The stupid exec's never cared about energy waste or the effect on our country (we in three wars right now connected to oil) or anybody except their own golden parachutes. They bankrupted as soon as the price of oil went up.
The government never should have released GM until it changed it's market focus. Kick all of the rest of the engineers educated at GM University out like they did with Rick Wagner, and bring in real engineers who do not know the "GM" way of doing things. Maybe some guy's from Apple or some other company that can inovate!
For 3D printing to make the jump from rapid prototyping to manufacturing, engineers will need to find easier ways to move products from their CAD screens to their printers.
Gigabit and PoE are two networking technologies moving ahead in tandem as industrial users power remote Ethernet devices such as IP security cameras at 1,000 Mbps over existing CAT5 cable.
New versions of BASF's Ecovio line are both compostable and designed for either injection molding or thermoforming. These combinations are becoming more common for the single-use bioplastics used in food service and food packaging applications, but are still not widely available.
From Dell / Intel® New Paradigms in Design Work Scott Hamilton, vertical market strategist for Dell Precision workstations, 5/2/2013 5
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For industrial control applications, or even a simple assembly line, that machine can go almost 24/7 without a break. But what happens when the task is a little more complex? That’s where the “smart” machine would come in. The smart machine is one that has some simple (or complex in some cases) processing capability to be able to adapt to changing conditions. Such machines are suited for a host of applications, including automotive, aerospace, defense, medical, computers and electronics, telecommunications, consumer goods, and so on. This radio show will show what’s possible with smart machines, and what tradeoffs need to be made to implement such a solution.
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