Question of the Month: Which technology will power automobiles in 20 years?

e14 Question of the Month

The future of transportation is renewable energy. Electric vehicles are growing in popularity, and more resources are being invested into the development of hydrogen-powered vehicles. Take the poll and let us know what technology will power cars in the near future, and please elaborate in the Comments section below!

Top Replies

michaelkellett over 2 years ago in reply to Ronald777 +5

This is not correct. Hydrogen used as fuel is (usually) made by electrolysis of water, splitting it up into oxygen and hydrogen by using electrical energy. The oxygen is released to the atmosphere and…
michaelkellett over 2 years ago +2

Synthetic fuel (which might be hydrogen or a mix of hydrogen, diesel, petrol and methane). The world has over 1 billion petrol and diesel vehicles and the infrastructure to get liquid fuel into them. …
koudelad over 2 years ago +2

I recommend this video, which explains why hydrogen won't save us. Currently made mainly from fossil fuels, very complicated for storage and building the infrastructure. www.youtube.com/watch

DAB over 2 years ago

Looking to the future, only Hydrogen would provide enough versatility to be used for most people.

Electric vehicles are ok for city use where you can maximize recharge stations, but for the country folk, they are just not feasible.

Also, the effort to recycle electric batteries will consume a lot of resources that the use of Hydrogen avoids.
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GabrielP over 2 years ago

I believe we will use zero point energy for any and all energy needs, including cars and flycraft. Over unity electrical machines already are used in Australia and it takes only a few short years to be improved and made small enough to be included in cars and drones. But I see hydrogen cars being developed before that.
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michaelkellett over 2 years ago in reply to GabrielP

Please quote one actual example.

MK
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Ronald777 over 2 years ago

We already have a shortage of water.. hydrogen is not a renewable energy source.. it will negatively impact oceanic ecology.
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michaelkellett over 2 years ago in reply to Ronald777

This is not correct. Hydrogen used as fuel is (usually) made by electrolysis of water, splitting it up into oxygen and hydrogen by using electrical energy. The oxygen is released to the atmosphere and the hydrogen is oxidised by atmospheric oxygen at the point of use later on. The process is 100% circular as far as water is concerned. If the electrical energy is generated by a renewable process the whole cycle is harmless.

There are some issues, but a water shortage is not one of them.

MK
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dougw over 2 years ago in reply to Ronald777

Most of earth's materials are more or less a zero sum game, you can change their composition but not the total amount on the planet. We can try to make the planet more comfortable for most humans, but we aren't significantly changing the total amount of any element here.

The earth does lose over 30,000 tons of atmosphere per year, mostly hydrogen, but it also accumulates over 40,000 tons of meteor material each year. The gas loss may be a reason for us not to be releasing hydrogen into the atmosphere at some point, but it probably isn't an immediate concern.
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ARK69 over 2 years ago

Using the earth's magnetic field
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Former Member over 2 years ago

surface limited conveyances will just give us more traffic jams, road repair, and nowhere to go. Batteries don't have the energy density and weigh too much for practical flying cars. This leaves ecofueled ICE vehicles until H-18 molecules are synthesized for room temperature liquid hydrogen, at which point, fuel cell flying cars will take over.
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Jviz13 over 2 years ago

I meant to say hydrogen, dangit
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DAB over 2 years ago in reply to scottiebabe

With modern containment vessels, it would be as safe to use as gasoline and a whole lot less volatile as lithium.
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