Bridge-Step for the Future [Cetin Sert]
While producers and people all
over the world realize the priorest thing in the process of producing something
is to work for keeping the product less-damaging to the nature and to make it
even cheaper, the first fruits of renewed human-being's point of view are being
shown off. Technology mustn't ever be, if it will damage the mother nature.
Similar opinions from all over the world make the companies compete each
other at producing the best solution for what is wanted and/or needed by people.
In the very beginning of an absolutely new millenium, here we go for a short
tour beyond the Scientific minds working for the globalizing world and day by
day internationalizing people but not just for themselves as
supposed.
Prototype of a Sedan supported by US
government
The earth, well known as the
greenhouse is getting damaged by us day by day. For reducing these damages,
countries which have enough thinking-people, have already started such
beneficial projects. Wouldn't you like to have the chance of driving a high-tech
car, which is based on a totally different technology expected to give least
harm(damage) possible? It is why I am trying to write this short article
about it. I mean you surely would, so now you wonder how it can be possible and
what technological advancements we are talking about.
In the first article of
Bridge-Step for the future, a medium sized Sedan (*http://www.sedan.com) will be our main theme.
The companies' itself and many organizations funded by government, are all
sharing all their knowledges on these car enhancements.
Here we are getting into the
very depths of our up-coming, nature-friendly car which makes **80 miles
per hour (120~130 kph).
HYBRID ENGINES
Advanced
engines
In addition to fuel cells, researchers
are testing hybrid engines that use two power sources -- one gasoline, the other
electric.
That secondary power source, the
USCAR consortium says, "could come from energy that is lost during normal
operation of today's cars, but could be trapped on board future vehicles using
technologies now under development." Superefficient batteries are some of the
key on-board storage technologies.
FUEL CELL
Fuel cell
Researchers hope that within 20 years fuel cells, not internal combustion
engines, will power vehicles. The cells generate electricity directly from a
chemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen triggered by a platinum catalyst.
If hydrogen is used to start the process, the only emission is water.
Unfortunately, hydrogen is not
readily available as fuel, so researchers are working on fuel "reformers," which
would allow hydrogen to be drawn from available fuels such as gasoline, methanol
and ethanol.
Researchers are looking for a
cheaper material to replace the graphite parts of current fuel cells. And
scientists at the Los Alamos National Laboratory have found a way to reduce the
amount of platinum needed in a fuel cell, so that instead of adding $32,000 to
the cost, only $300 worth of platinum is used.
ENGINE BLOCKS
Lightweight
materials
Researchers hope to cut body and
chassis weight by 50 percent, and powertrains by 10 percent, by developing new
lightweight, high-strength materials. Aluminum, magnesium, titanium and carbon
fiber are being tested, but cost reduction is a major challenge.
Engine blocks are one of the
heaviest parts of a vehicle, but making them lighter and still durable by using
aluminum is costly. One project aims to achieve this durability by spraying
liquid metals onto the cylinder walls of an aluminum engine block.
ENERGY STORAGE
Energy
storage
Hybrid vehicles need advanced high-power
batteries that are designed for repetitive discharge and recharge over 10,000
times a year as the vehicle accelerates, climbs, and slows or stops. Nickel
metal hydride or lithium-ion technology are the most promising ways to store
this energy for later use in powering the electric motor.
BRAKES
Brakes
Energy
can be conserved via “regenerative” braking, which captures energy normally
wasted during braking and stores it for additional power on board a
vehicle.
ELECTRONIC CONTROLS
Electronic
controls
Hybrid vehicles blend the power of a
combustion engine and an electric motor, and splitting the power between these
two sources requires advanced electronic circuits capable of handling about 100
kilowatts of electricity. The Department of Energy and the U.S. Navy’s Office of
Naval Research are trying to achieve that capacity.
At Last...
"All once you knew will change
into what you will know forever" is one of the best quotes / sayings I have ever
heard and those cars are the closest things that deserves to be known by that
sentence in the immediate future. At the end of this article, if you are still
insisting on thinking inaffirmatively, asking to yourself what it was all about
or thinking they will never come true, there is nothing you may be told but "
"Why" you ask, "why isn't there any companies or organizations funded by our
government working on such beneficial things for the planet that has always been
letting us use the most precious things of itself?" and my answer to that
question consists of some simple but straight-forward words. "They invest but we
get shocked and make its manias all over. They use them as they were supposed by
its investors but we customize them for giving harm for ourselves and to the
others and in a way performing all that. They consider what future must hold for
us and make it possible by their arts of works ranging from the satellites,
space-missions, computer softwares... to architecting, and being an example
of how a human-being must be but we just get the advantages of what they have
invested. In short, they come up at the top but all we can do is to pretend to
be following them by using their investments not by advancing, enhancing them.".
As long as we are all that ignorant, they will always be that sure even
will they say "where do you want to go today?", giving the meaning of "we are
here for taking you there because you can't" hiddenly. They do not fight against
each other but against what is known and believed in to be the furthest point
just unlike us".
Do not prejudice anything
especially if it is an opinion and always feel free to think different.
Sooner or later we have to learn how to change the way we live for our own
benefits as the citizens of the World.
Hoping to write for you again sometime
soon,
Digitally Yours,
Cetin Sert
SOURCE
U.S. Council for Automotive
Research
onTheWeb
