[radz28]

I wonder when we're going to peak with internal combustion engines. Sometimes I think we're there, but then, with continuous improvements we get, I start to think we're going to be forced away from fossil fueled cars way before we reach a zenith.

[Mr. Wyndham]

Originally Posted by radz282003

I wonder when we're going to peak with internal combustion engines. Sometimes I think we're there, but then, with continuous improvements we get, I start to think we're going to be forced away from fossil fueled cars way before we reach a zenith.

Internal Combustion and Fossil fuels are not directly related. Remember that.

[Angrybird 12]

Originally Posted by radz282003

I wonder when we're going to peak with internal combustion engines. Sometimes I think we're there, but then, with continuous improvements we get, I start to think we're going to be forced away from fossil fueled cars way before we reach a zenith.

All I know is I think we're going to have a Z28 we can be proud of and one I know I'm going to look forward to owning

Sounds like what I was hearing about 10 years ago with the personal computers when they got up to 100MHZ speed with 320meg hard drives....the "experts" said that was as fast as they could go and as big a hard drive as could be made..LOL they were very wrong...

[radz28]

Originally Posted by Dragoneye

Internal Combustion and Fossil fuels are not directly related. Remember that.

Touche

Speaking of... WHY CAN'T WE GET SOME SYTHETIC ALTERNATIVE TO FOSSILE FUELS?! I'm sure they'd be more expensive, at least intially, but if they can do that with oils, and so many other things, why not this? Why can't we get something that produces at least the same power with less emissions for a reasonable price? My dad will say it's because of "Big Oil" but I'm not totally convenced.

Originally Posted by Skyman 08

Sounds like what I was hearing about 10 years ago with the personal computers when they got up to 100MHZ speed with 320meg hard drives....the "experts" said that was as fast as they could go and as big a hard drive as could be made..LOL they were very wrong...

Exactly. I remember seeing how a single computer used to take up an entire room! Look at how far we've come!

[MontyCarlo]

Originally Posted by Dragoneye

Internal Combustion and Fossil fuels are not directly related. Remember that.

Ah yes. Did you happen to see the Mythbusters where they powered a car off of hydrogen gas? No fancy tricks needed; they just blew in hydrogen.

[Mr. Wyndham]

Originally Posted by MontyCarlo

Ah yes. Did you happen to see the Mythbusters where they powered a car off of hydrogen gas? No fancy tricks needed; they just blew in hydrogen.

mhmm. The trick there is that aluminum doesn't like hydrogen...it makes the metal very brittle over time, as I understand it, which is not a good trait in an engine. Plus, the volume of hydrogen necessary to make such a setup worth it is...significant for on-board carry. BUT!!! With the proper materials (ceramic/steel composites maybe?), and advanced technologies (carbon nanotubes...). Hydrogen IC engines are a real possibiltiy.

[Angrybird 12]

Originally Posted by radz282003

Exactly. I remember seeing how a single computer used to take up an entire room! Look at how far we've come!

I was watching a show on the history of NASA, and in it they said your blackberry has more computing power than the Apollo command module had...

[radz28]

Originally Posted by Skyman 08

I was watching a show on the history of NASA, and in it they said your blackberry has more computing power than the Apollo command module had...

LOL! Not my Blackberry. j/k

That's pretty amazing, isn't it. That's scary too...

[MontyCarlo]

Originally Posted by radz282003

Touche

Speaking of... WHY CAN'T WE GET SOME SYTHETIC ALTERNATIVE TO FOSSILE FUELS?! I'm sure they'd be more expensive, at least intially, but if they can do that with oils, and so many other things, why not this? Why can't we get something that produces at least the same power with less emissions for a reasonable price? My dad will say it's because of "Big Oil" but I'm not totally convenced.

Exactly. I remember seeing how a single computer used to take up an entire room! Look at how far we've come!

Gasoline has extremely high energy density, and the energy it takes from us to pull it from the ground and turn it into fuel isn't much compared to the energy we get from it. The reason we don't use greener fuels or synthetics very much is they're simply not as good as gas in terms of bang-for-your-buck or sometimes safety.

Hydrogen, for example, is clean and renewable, but the only good way to get it is to take it from water, and doing that requires slightly more energy than you get from burning the hydrogen once you're done! Also, it's got a nasty habit of going Hindenburg on you. Biodiesel's an excellent fuel and with a bit of home chemistry you can get your car running off of used french fry oil, but this will only be cheap until it becomes popular and McDonald's starts charging $5 a gallon for used oil.

[Mr. Wyndham]

Originally Posted by radz282003

Speaking of... WHY CAN'T WE GET SOME SYTHETIC ALTERNATIVE TO FOSSILE FUELS?! I'm sure they'd be more expensive, at least intially, but if they can do that with oils, and so many other things, why not this? Why can't we get something that produces at least the same power with less emissions for a reasonable price? My dad will say it's because of "Big Oil" but I'm not totally convenced.

Well...first of all. "Synthetic" means "man-made", traditionally...So, Synthetic oils are misrepresented, because they are NOT man-made. What a synthetic oil is, basically...a highly-refined motor oil. It's a cleaner, purer oil and gets refined to have midly different characteristics from standard oil. It's not "created", though. It still comes from petroleum.

As far as an 'synthetic' alternative to fossil fuels...how's this?

http://www.greencrudeproduction.com/

My biggest hope for the world right now, believe it or not, is that this (^) takes off like a bat outta hell.

[radz28]

Originally Posted by Dragoneye

Well...first of all. "Synthetic" means "man-made", traditionally...So, Synthetic oils are misrepresented, because they are NOT man-made. What a synthetic oil is, basically...a highly-refined motor oil. It's a cleaner, purer oil and gets refined to have midly different characteristics from standard oil. It's not "created", though. It still comes from petroleum.

As far as an 'synthetic' alternative to fossil fuels...how's this?

http://www.greencrudeproduction.com/

My biggest hope for the world right now, believe it or not, is that this (^) takes off like a bat outta hell.

Oh yeah - I remember that from Horsepower TV, lol! They went to Royal Purple and they explained that. I still meant a completely sythetic, but I didn't say that right. Thanks for making that clearer

That stuff looks pretty cool!

[Robert91RS]

Originally Posted by Dragoneye

http://www.greencrudeproduction.com/

My biggest hope for the world right now, believe it or not, is that this (^) takes off like a bat outta hell.

+1

Algae is one of the fastest growing organisms on earth. So it could potentialy be produces faster than corn based ethenol. And produced in large enough quantities it could be cheaper also.

[MontyCarlo]

Best of luck to the algae folks. I'm just worried it'll be stuck in development for decades like fusion power has been. They tried it before - I think it was the 70s or 80s - and couldn't get it to produce fuel efficiently enough or in high enough volumnes.

[radz28]

Originally Posted by Robert91RS

+1

Algae is one of the fastest growing organisms on earth. So it could potentialy be produces faster than corn based ethenol. And produced in large enough quantities it could be cheaper also.

I'm not disagreeing, by any means, and I'm not really a conspiracy theorist, but this just make too much sense, lol.