For the future, the "water" car

[BigRedFed]

It sounds like a strange combination: zinc oxide crystals, water, and noise pollution. But scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have discovered that the mix can efficiently produce hydrogen without the need for a dirty catalyst like oil. By submerging a new type of zinc oxide crystal in water, the scientists claim to be able to harvest hydrogen using vibrations from passing traffic and crashing waves.

sustainable design, green design, hydrogen atom, hydrogen, water, noise pollution, fuel, green energy, clean energy, renewable energy

To generate the clean hydrogen, researchers produced zinc oxide crystals that absorb vibrations when placed in water. The vibrations cause the crystals to develop areas with strong positive and negative charges–a reaction that rips the surrounding water molecules and releases hydrogen and oxygen.

The mechanism, dubbed the piezoelectrochemical effect, converts 18% of energy from vibrations into hydrogen gas (compared to 10% from conventional piezoelectric materials). And since any vibration can produce the effect, the system could one day be used to generate power from anything that produces noise — cars whizzing by on the highway, crashing waves in the ocean, or planes landing at an airport. That sounds like a good deal to us!

http://www.newscientist.com/article/...ef=online-news

Fill your fuel tank with water, have a small battery that can store enough energy to go say 10-20mi, and a hydrogen generator, and we finally have our water car! No violation of the second law of thermodynamics here, just gotta be able to carry enough water.

[Itching4it]

You forgot one thing. Once everyone adopts this, the cars will be too quiet to produce the requisite noise pollution level.

[Roy]

Why to people continue to ignore the important facts? The report says 18% efficiency. Do you realize what an incredible amount of noise it would take to power a car? An electric car requires about 10kW to run, Your 200 watt boom box in your car can produce almost deafening rock music. So take your loudest rock music, multiply it by 50 * 2 * 5 = 500 times to drive your car.

[Altazi]

Why to people continue to ignore the important facts? The report says 18% efficiency. Do you realize what an incredible amount of noise it would take to power a car? An electric car requires about 10kW to run, Your 200 watt boom box in your car can produce almost deafening rock music. So take your loudest rock music, multiply it by 50 * 2 * 5 = 500 times to drive your car.

That boom box might require 200W of power to drive the speakers, but the acoustic power delivered to you ears (or a surface several feet away) would be measured in milliwatts. Your multiplication factor is off by several orders of magnitude. This just underlines your point, of course.

[rhodomel]

Why to people continue to ignore the important facts? The report says 18% efficiency. ..

TAKE NOTICE! 18% efficiency is infinitely better than 0% efficiency especially when we are converting energy that is free. It is better to produce the fuel this way. Look at the best terrestrial plants in the world, they convert 5% of sunlight into sugars which become cellulose or food products, which we then convert into fuel, with an overall efficiency of 0.2% from sunlight to wheels.

If the noises and the waves are free, any efficiency factor to convert them into fuel would be better than letting them waste away. Of course the bottom line is that if the value of the amount of fuel they produce is greater than the finance charges of the device per unit time.

But 18% directly into fuel, that is truly amazingly high efficiency to produce fuel!!!

If you use solar PV, on the average has only 12% effiency from sunlight, and use that to split water to produce hydrogen, the overall efficiency would not come close to 9%. And you can't use the solar PV to convert noise into fuel.

[FrayAdjacent]

You forgot one thing. Once everyone adopts this, the cars will be too quiet to produce the requisite noise pollution level.

Then you just piss in the tank and yell at it for a while and you're good to go!

[omegaman66]

I want one. Am I correct in assuming that nothing get consumed other than the water. If so I want one. Sure it will not produce a bunch of energy but it will be free energy (after the initial cost). And if the world comes crashing down a little energy might be more than everyone else has.

[BigRedFed]

I want one. Am I correct in assuming that nothing get consumed other than the water. If so I want one. Sure it will not produce a bunch of energy but it will be free energy (after the initial cost). And if the world comes crashing down a little energy might be more than everyone else has.

I don't think the water is being consumed either. It's the acoustic energy that is being consumed. Once the hydrogen is "burned' by the fuel cell, it would produce water and whatever else. So your input is noise, output is electricity. But, I could be wrong.

[Roy]

I don't think the water is being consumed either. It's the acoustic energy that is being consumed. Once the hydrogen is "burned' by the fuel cell, it would produce water and whatever else. So your input is noise, output is electricity. But, I could be wrong.

You have an excellent point here. Microphones convert acoustic energy into electricity. I am not sure at what efficiency level but expect it is much better than converting noise into hydrogen, then hydrogen into electricity.

[omnimoeish]

We just need a car that has a regenerative shocks (produce 2kW - 17kW) on an average road.

http://www.autoblog.com/2009/02/01/o...rative-shocks/

Combine that with about 2 square meters of solar panels on the roof and trunk, and this noise energy converter.

Then throw in an EESTor ultracapacitor, with solar roads that inductively charge the car while its driving, and while were at it, let's throw on some bike pedals to run a generator while you've got it in cruise control.