Pathetic....

TMetzinger said:
Which is why room-temperature superconductors (miracles) would be such a game changer... or REALLY efficient batteries.

Anybody else ever read Heinlein's "Friday"? It was a hard book to get through but I was fascinated by the concept of the "Shipstone power cell".
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They are working on the batteries- a fluoride ion battery was announced last week that they hope will have 10x the energy density of Li ion batteries ( http://www.rdmag.com/News/2011/10/E...y-stores-ten-times-the-energy-of-lithium-ion/ )

Here's some of the problems they are facing:
The KIT researchers are now working on the further development of material design and battery architecture in order to improve the initial capacity and cyclic stability of the fluoride-ion battery. Another challenge lies in the further development of the electrolyte: The solid electrolyte applied so far is suited for applications at elevated temperatures only. It is therefore aimed at finding a liquid electrolyte that is suited for use at room temperature
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They are having less luck with the room temp superconductors.

Heinlein writes good books- I read Friday a couple of months ago.
 
Cap'n Jack said:
They are working on the batteries- a fluoride ion battery was announced last week that they hope will have 10x the energy density of Li ion batteries ( http://www.rdmag.com/News/2011/10/E...y-stores-ten-times-the-energy-of-lithium-ion/ )

Here's some of the problems they are facing:


They are having less luck with the room temp superconductors.

Heinlein writes good books- I read Friday a couple of months ago.
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Re-invent the battery = save the world.

<---<^>--->
 
p1l0t said:
Heat == inefficency

<---<^>--->
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More or less, if the exhaust is hot then the engine isn't 100% efficent at extracting the the energy from the fuel. Same thing goes for that silly radiator in there too.

Problem is getting more from the fuel doesn't mean much if it doesn't get turned into useful work (moving driver, passengers, cargo etc.) so big heavy things to extract some of the wasted energy shift where you loose the energy. Getting more gains than loss is possiblel in theory, but is a bit of an engineering issue.

Simply changing from cold rolled steel to better alloys allowing a significant weight reduction of the vehicle (as ALL energy spent moving the vehicles empty mass around is "wasted" energy) is a good place to start....
 
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