T. Boone Pickens Has Got To Like This
Posted by Phoenix Woman on August 2, 2008
Why? Because he’s heavily invested in natural gas, for one thing.
Tech Blorge passes on this little tidbit concerning the Chevy Volt and GM’s plans to have compressed natural gas be one of the alternate power sources for it:
Imagine driving the first part of a trip on electricity alone, then seamlessly transitioning into extended range using compressed natural gas, all refuel-able at home. That’s what Larry Burns at GM has in mind when he says:
In the near term, we can use compressed natural gas (CNG) in internal combustion engines. Mid term, we can leverage natural gas to create electricity for the Volt and future variants. In the long term, natural gas could be an excellent source for making hydrogen for fuel cell vehicles, either at the filling station or in people’s homes.
Burns even mentions there may be a possibility of integrating natural gas into existing combustion engines, creating dual fuel engines still using the older technology. That could but a new solution in the hands of lots of consumers who will struggle to afford the Chevy Volt’s ever-escalating price tag (likely $40,000 or more).
This actually makes a lot of sense. While compressed natural gas takes up slightly more space than does gasoline, you need less of it as it’s a backup to the battery and not the main power source. It’s also considerably cheaper than gasoline — about the equivalent of $2.50-a-gallon gas in most of the country, and even cheaper in places like Utah, where it’s heavily subsidized. It’s also less polluting than gasoline, largely because of its superior energy to carbon ratio. So making T. Boone Pickens happy just might help make us all happy — or at least ease the transition to full-on electric vehicles.
Michael said
Seems okay — at least as a half way step, though I think it would be better to take the next step and convert the natural gas to hydrogen and run cars on H2. Having to install the cracking equipment in every car cannot be efficient.
Michael said
Also, as we get better technologies for obtaining H2 from other sources we can phase out the dependence on fossil fuel altogether.
Phoenix Woman said
The big bottleneck right now is battery storage. Upgrade battery storage and true electric cars become a reality.
Michael said
Unless there develops a way to instantly recharge a battery, there will always be a need for the ability to refuel for extended distance travel.
Phoenix Woman said
They’re working on that, here and here. It’s mostly a matter of getting the fast-charge facilities installed.
Right now, the Volt’s electric-only range is limited to 40 miles on one battery charge. But if that could be upped by an order of magnitude — which is what Stanford researchers, among others, are trying to do — then suddenly we’re looking at 400 miles per battery charge, which is enough for short-haul trucking to be feasible. (Long-haul trucking may even be possible, too. I’m envisioning a situation where the cabs and cargo compartments have solar cells on top them, so that there’s a constant trickle charge when the sun is out.) With that and fast-charging, suddenly we’re sitting pretty.