Breakthrough promises $1.50 per gallon synthetic gasoline with no carbon emissions

The weight of the tank depends on what kind of tank you use. Carbon fiber tanks are the lightest but also the most expensive.

The Honda civic gets about 250 miles per tank and the tank is quite heavy. To refuel at home with a natural gas compressor (about 4500 dollars) would take about eight hours.

However..small carbon fiber tanks could be refueled at home and "switched" as needed.

You may have to turn a wrench to change them as you would a propane tank on a forklift but it is doable.

I am not sure how many punds of LNG or CNG it takes to go 250 miles...it would depend on the mode of transportation...the weight, etc.

 

That is what I dug up on the internet and I have not done it myself.

And I do apologise...I am on dial-up and videos are a pain to load so I don't do it often.

I just thought it would be neat to dump a bunch of chemicals in a vat and produce hydrogen.

I had to do a little research because I am not a chemist.

But it is everywhere (hydrogen) why not release it through chemistry?

 

That does not apply in his theoretical case, because the "Clean Air Act" is a Federal law.

 

From what I have read you can convert almost any vehicle to Nat gas. but it has to be done by an EPA approved shop and it is expensive.

But you can convert your lawn mower, farm tractor, generator, fork lift, and other small engines.

They sell kits.

You could even buy a conversion kit and do it yourself on your own car.
But if you get caught by the EPA the fine is 5,000 dollars a day.

Just another case of too much regulation.

 

Not when you take out the gas engine and throw in a diesel engine. In the 1970's-1980's, a lot of companies made Diesel versions of passenger cars because of the price difference of the fuel (around .10-15 cents per gallon lower for diesel back then). VW, GM, Ford, BMW, Mercedes, even Citroen and Peugeot. But because of modern emissions requirements and fuel cost, diesels are now pretty much only found in trucks where power is critical.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRFHHOS6V7Y

And a lot of guys would scour junk yards looking for engines from vehicles like this to put in their gasoline burning cars.

Then time went by, and things started to flip around. Diesel passenger cars are hard to find now, since the fuel now costs more then gasoline. And many people are trying to convert back to gasoline for the same reason.

And as I found out accidentially, converting from diesel to gas illegally can come with an added advantage. In 1989 we bought a Buick Century that had been illegally converted from Diesel to Gasoline (the original engine burned out, the owner put in the cheaper gasoline engine). When we took it to California, we were worried about it passing state smog since it did not have any of the smog control junk on it.

But the title still said "Diesel", so no smog was required.

 

Roughly about the same amount of gasoline.

The difference in fuel has little effect on the actual mileage. 5 gallons of CNG or Propane will get you about the same distance as 5 gallons of gasoline. The difference however is that CNG can be compressed, gasoline can't. This effects storage, but not the actual performance.

And check the requirements for those conversion shops. For the most part they only work on cars less then 3 years old.

Because these are not licensed vehicles. Federal agencies like the EPA, DoT, and others do not get involved in such matters. Since they do not go on the road, you can do anything you like with them.

Which takes us full circle.

Right now you have an Argentinian motorcycle company trying to pass the DoT requirements to import to the US a CNG motorcycle. I hope they can do it, since nobody else up here seems interested.

I would love to see segments of the Clean Air Act blown away.

 

Especially the parts that keep the air dirty at a higher cost.

 

it would be neat, but the cost of producing those chemicals and the toxic waste should make gasoline seem cheap.

 

still plenty of OEM diesel cars out there...VW's TDI cars come first to mind. the difference in your fuel mileage still makes them cheaper to operate.

 

Unless you could use the waste for something else.

 

The point was it is apparently illegal to convert any used vehicle to another fuel source.

 

It would be easier to cut a hole in the floor and convert it into a flintstone-type vehicle.

 

Undoubtedly because you did not see the country prior to EPA in 1970. The Cuyahoga River in Cleveland caught fire in 1969 (a river on fire??) http://www.newsnet5.com/dpp/news/local_news/remembering-the-cuyahoga-river-fire: it was much more likely to catch a beer can in the Great Lakes than a fish: Pittsburgh was often dark as night at 11 AM (http://www.helium.com/items/1301293-clean-air-act ). I could go on and on.

People have forgotten how bad it was; how everyone, both corporations and citizens alike, assumed pollution was the natural by-product of progress.

Now many have forgotten and powerful interests want to return to those conditions in the interest of executive bonuses. Often a cafeteria type of environmental protection is proposed, just apply those mandates that don't inconvenience me, or me or me. And what will be left? Nothing, because every single mandate costs someone something.

That is what you want, just ignore the aspects that deter you from whatever interest you want. But what about the rest of us, and our children and grandchildren?

As for my credentials, I am an engineer and currently the plant manager of a fair sized factory, which means that I probably know a little bit more than most about industrial pollution and the hazards associated with it. And it would be so easy to cheat a little today. And then a little bit more tomorrow. And a whole hell of a lot more next month. So easy. And so wrong.

Unless you give permission to dump in your basement. Don't worry about what chemicals are involved, I promise they won't harm you. (Just kidding, a little: mostly trying to make a point.)

 

Are those good in cold winters? Seems to me that Diesel can be a bit of a hassle under those conditions, having to warm the thing up a bit before you can start it.

 

Actually, yes I did. I remember days we were not allowed outside at school because the smog was so bad in LA.

You should re-read what I said again. I did not say "I would love to see the Clean Air Act blown away", only "segments" of it. Like those that prevent any changes in vehicle fuel system. Like those that restrict motorcycle engines and classify a great many as "gross poluters". Like those that restrict or prevent the use of "bullet trains" because it violates segments of the law as "noise polution".

The Clean Air Act is a good law, but some parts of it have become antiquated because of technology advances (like CNG/LPG vehicles), others because they are preventing much cleaner alternatives. They have been trying to build bullet trains in California for decades. If you have ever traveled between LA and San Francisco or LA and Las Vegas on the weekends, you will see how many people go to those destinations on weekends. Allowing electric high speed trains will take a lot of the cars off the roads in those areas (and also reduce the number of aircraft servicing those routes). But every time one is proposed, it violates the Clean Air Act (because it would require new rails, therefore not grandfathered like the existing train routes).

Do not think that because I want some parts removed that I want the entire thing scrapped.

 

I had a Mercedes turbo diesel in Toronto for many years. Like most cars, gas engines included, it had a little power cord sticking out of the front that connected to a block heater. And it was mandatory in winter.

 

That is why diesel engines have glow plugs. And everybody should know that you should always let your vehicle warm up at least 1-5 minutes before driving it.

 

as long as you treat your fuel. i have started semis @-20....it looked like a scene out Mordor in LOTR, but it started.

 

You don't understand business very well. If we could run cars on hyrogen for $1.50 per gallon, the oil companies would be falling all over themselves to beat each other to market. They would have a limitless supply of energy instead of a disappearing one. Unfortunately, fossil oil is still the cheapest fuel available and probably will be until it disappears.

 

Not to mention, does anybody think that 'big oil" will go away because we can make cars run on anything but gasoline?

No, and even thinking so is very-very stupid.

Petrolium is used to make everything from lubricants and fuel to insecticides, plastics (already the number 1 use of petrolium), and medicines. And even if we can convert cars, that does not impact the generators, trains, boats, aircraft, and everything else that still burns petrolium.

In fact, gasoline for many years was a byproduct of distilation, and thrown away after the process. In modern times petrolium was distilled for Kerosene, and the smelly byproduct of gasoline was unsuitable for lamp oil, so was normally just thrown away. It was not until the internal combustion engine that they ever really had a use for the smelly stuff.