Mobius Projects: Green Cars and Sustainable Design

Hybrid Electric Vehicles

These are cars that run using a gas powered engine combined with an electric engine in unison. The idea is that the electric engine can help share the load of moving the vehicle along, and the combustion is there to pick up the slack. Or vice versa... Electric engines have a unique characteristic that they have near 100% torque at near 0 rpm’s. This makes them great tools for getting a car moving from a dead stop.

Combustion engines on the other hand have a great time with moving at max rpm’s and maintain their power. Car makers are trying to use these separate power sources for their strengths making the combination more efficient than the separate parts.
There is also a facet of energy recuperation captured during the braking process and is channelled into recharging the battery  

Plug in Electric Hybrid Vehicles

These types of cars charge themselves similarly to Hybrid Electric Vehicles using the combustion engine and braking forces to charge the batteries for the electric component. Plug in Electric Hybrid Vehicles differ in that they have the ability to be charged via the electric grid.

While special power recharging units generally need to be installed, these cars can tap into external electrical sources for energy. Charge times vary between 30 mins on the very fast side and several hours on the slower side.

Typically the recharging units required also need permits from local councils in order to be installed. 

Plug in Electric Vehicles

These cars work are essentially electric engines only. While zero emissions, they suffer from the same problems as plug in hybrids in terms of the charging and total carbon footprint.

From a personal standpoint, if you want a glorified jacked up golf cart, then by my guest.

However, one can not deny that there are some truly impressive examples of car makers that are using this technology to develop cars that push the boundaries of the performance market.

This consideration is insightful inspiration of the necessity to embrace the rev heads as key advocates for any new technology in automotive development. 

Compressed Air Vehicles

These vehicles are not exactly innovative in their concept. In fact, the first compressed air engine has been used since the 19th century in industrial applications.

The efficiency of the engine in questionable based only on the limitation of how much compressed air the storage system can acquire. While also being zero emissions, this platform of technology has not drawn the same kind of attention that platforms revolving around electric engines has.  

However, there have been recent innovations that have changed the landscape of what is possible with air power.

The evolution of the air engine to incorporate magnetic assisted rotor designs has given this platform new legs just in time to meet the call for a carbon nuetral solution.

Hydrogen and Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicles

This form of power generation is quite a tricky one to get ones head around. The basis of hydrogen revolves around the best application for the potential energy involved. Too vague? Well then the answer becomes two fold. One, is that hydrogen itself can be used as a combustible source of energy. Two, the process of electrolysis can generate excess energy that can be channelled.

Currently there exists these two methods of extracting the energy from hydrogen. BMW have a fully hydrogen powered vehicle based on their 5 series platform. Due to the fact that these vehicles need specialised fuelling depots, the adoption rates of the technology have been low.

The emissions from the vehicles comes mainly in the form of water, so there are no green house gasses being released during combustion. It should also be noted that hydrogen is extremely explosive. Extremely. Look to the Hindenburg for more details on what can happen when hydrogen combusts in an unchecked manne

Ethanol Combustion Vehicle

The potential of this type of combustion platform is completely untapped in the main stream western automotive markets. Places like Brazil have adopted this fuel source which manufactured using sugar cane. Ethanol is a truly renewable fuel source, but has lacked wide global adoption. A main driver of this is the US market forces that act as deterrents for mass auto market shifts towards ethanol powered propulsion.

Is this a result of the US economy being heavily focused towards wheat instead of sugar cane, or potentially from the fear that South America would reclaim too much rain forest in order to increase production to meet global standards; who is to say? The simple fact is that this fuel source is proven as reliable and renewable, but you can’t get the same economies of scale with wheat based ethanol production like you can with sugar cane.

Global adoption has been hindered for a myriad of reasons, but this is not to say that we cannot revisit the subject under new market paradigms.

Flex Fuel Combustion Vehicles 

Probably the most reasonable and sensible option of all future fuel platforms is Flex Fuel. As the name implies, these engines will run on anything; Throw diesel in it and it will run. Ethanol, no worries. Petrol, well yes. But we are trying to save the planet here so let’s try and not use a lot of that. Bio Fuel, of course, please come on in.

Someone had a good idea at one stage in regards to making an engine that could run on anything, but the danger here is creating too many substitutes for a commodity. If the supply side revenue stream is not sufficient to meet infrastructure challenges, then it becomes difficult to mass transport fuel. On the other hand, flex fuel allows for various local, or even cottage, industry to spring up to support local demand.

Through reducing transportation costs of fuel, you can also effectively reduce the carbon footprint associated to delivery of industry goods to the public. Every little bit helps, but in this case it could save us from oil spills I’m sure you’ve heard of...

Natural Gas Combustion Vehicles

Let me sumarise succinctly... That means with very few words.

Not a good idea. Exhaust smells like flatulence. Explosive in a bad way. Pressure needed in tanks to charge the system. Even more risk of explosion.

Supply is semi-limited at this stage. Not exactly renewable and tends to create too many bi-products.

Compared to something like sugar cane based ethanol which is adding O2 to our air as it helps grow fuel, natural gas is no-where near a superior option.