Coca-Cola Powered Car?

The extreme fizzing that occurs when Mentos mints are added to Coke is due to the large number of nucleation sites that allow the CO₂ in the Coke to come out of solution very quickly. The nucleation sites are created when them mints dissovle.

There's not a lot of energy to be had here. Move along.

Mainly I weote this to be amusing (to some) but I thought that it might spur some thoughts as to propulsion solutions other than archaeic gasoline and spark plugs. When I was a kid we built baking soda and vinegar rockets and we got baking powder and water to make similar results. with today's technology it seems like we could use some inexpensive chemical reaction to push a piston down.

Few substances have the explosive capacity of refined gasoline per volume. It's not a very 'archaic' system, it's just a tried-and-true one.

Eat a burger. Ride your bike. Burger powered transportation. Amazing...

Coca Cola and a burger. pretty funny. You want fries with that?

Yeah, fries have carbohydrates. That's ultimately hydrocarbons. We are just low temperature heat engines. That's pretty cool.

How about the hydrogen internal combustion engine? Or multi fuel engines that can run on anything flammable? They both exist but they are not widely used. When gasoling hits $5.00/gallon then I have a pretty good feeling that people will start using other forms of fuels. But there is another hurdle... People love their cars, Scenario 1 "John loves his corvette... I refuse to drive a prius! I want my vette!" What do you do here to resolve this conflict?

John simply needs to change his attitude. I personally think we could make the gasoline internal combustion engine work. The only problem...a bunch of yahoos have a stick up their rear about fossil fuels, so they make a big political stink and 'voila' all of a sudden we have to find 'alternative energy'. All the effort and resources we put into trying to find other ways to power our cars could result in the same end. Clean inexpensive gas(or other fuel) vehicles. Conclusion? It all comes down to whose attitude prevails today. It's not about practical circumstances it's about human thinking that's the only limiting factor. See Genesis 11:6, where God Himself said that there is no limit to what we can accomplish if we would only cooperate with one another.

If we talk some meaningful stuff here then we all intend to gain something positive. I feel we have excellent community at this forum.

Brazil used sugarcane for powering the cars and then there was bio-diesel. Perhaps more such ideas are worth discussing.

Chemical energy conversion using bimolecular systems can be as efficient as eating a Berger and peddling a bicycle. We may be very near to it and only have to open the canned knowledge.

Shyam

Amen!

Fusion power is the next source of unlimited energy. It is realistic and can be acheaved in less than 20 years research.

The entire world community knows that we will one day end up with Fusion energy as final source of unlimited power. Yet, no one seriously talks about it now. Looks like that there is no hurry among scientists and engineers or may be we have lost all great scientists for time being and have to wait for another wave of scientists to appear from no-where to the job.

Today, people are warmongers and less to humanity. Most of our human resources are diverted towards war knowledge and how to kill others easily. Madness has reached to such a level that who is killed does not matter. What else can be worst for humanity? We have lots of monsters among us in human skin.

If we limit the power requirement to just what we need in our life time, and use the natural resources to the extent we require to live, clean nature can be there for many years for all on earth. However, we want to have best charm by burning earth resources and want only others to keep to minimum, will be perpetual lose to all.

People who have their senses working now should keep away from charm of destruction and be part of simple living community. No great charm can be achieved by wasting natural resources; In fact all such activities should be called ridiculous and in human.

Bioprocesses are not free from dangers. When we disturb the natural balance even at part per million levels, we find it very harmful for our life. 1ppm ozone in air can kill our neurons and hydrazine H2N2 from hydrogen fuel can easily give cancer. Burning of hydrocarbons and breathing them is responsible for increase in many types of cancers.

First step need to be reduction in power consumption and not increasing the power and wasting it at wish. Can we ever enjoy clean air or we will prefer firecrackers to pollute the air. Most of us think that small things may not matter, but they are the one add up to total.

Can we use our brain to help ourselves, and also the rest of the humanity living side by side us? Keeping this in mind is better than simply ignoring it.

Shyam
India

I am still not clear on the difference between today's fission reactors and the as yet unperfected fusion process. What makes fusion more desireable than the nuclear power we already have? I know that here in the US the only reason we don't have more nuclear power is the fact that some people are afraid that their kids will become mutants or some such nonsense and as a result they resist what they fear. Many of our energy needs could easily be met if we would just learn to do what works. We need diverse energy sources for diverse purposes. If we could utilize more nuclear power for domestic power generation we could free up our oil resources for things like transportation. I know that we have been successfully using nuclear powered naval vessels for over 30 years. We have had 2 or 3 "accidents" in our history with nuclear power and even those were contained by the safety systems built into the plants. I don't understand why some people are so afraid. Are fusion reactors inherently safer? Is the process more efficient? Why would we replace fission with fusion?

Fusion offers more power with an unlimited amount of fuel. Uranium is a limited resource and leaves a radioactive byproduct that has to be safely stored for thousands of years. Breeder reactors create their own fuel and can produce many times the amount of power out of the known nuclear fuel reserves vs traditional reactors. The end product of a Breeder reactor is nuclear waste with a short half life that only has to be stored for decades. I think the Breeder reactor can even dispose of existing nuclear waste. One short coming of a Breeder reactor is that intermediate steps in the process produce weapons grade fuel.

our technology has already outpaced our moral capacity to apply it. You pristine world will not be much good after the nuclear war.

people are no different today than in the past. War has always been here and always will. You are very naive if you honestly think differently. Perhaps you watch to much CNN.

The yahoos with sticks up their bums have a damn good point -- we are going to run OUT of oil. In your lifetime.

Yes we love our acceleration and good looking cars. Tesla Autos has solved that problem except for the HUGE $$$ Pricetag. I'm talking about one chemical mist being injected into the intake manifold and the second element being introduced directly into the piston combustion chamber using present-day injectors causing the necessary expansion reaction (combustion) in order to push the piston down. The engines made today would not have to be that heavily modified. Are there any chemical people out there who would know of two (inexpensive) elements that when combined would cause this type of reaction? --Hopefully without caustic by-products.

"I'm talking about one chemical mist being injected into the intake manifold and the second element being introduced directly into the piston combustion chamber using present-day injectors causing the necessary expansion reaction (combustion) in order to push the piston down"

That is almost exactly what happens with a diesel engine, air the first element is drawn through the intake manifold into the cylinder, where the second element (fuel) is sprayed into it and combustion happens.

I think the problems lies with the inherent lack of efficency of the internal combustion engine. It takes so much power to overcome the friction and the wasted heat, that a fuel with a high btu content has to be used in order to make decent power.

I think it will take a radically new engine design to be able to incorparate other fuels with any degree of efficiency.

I once heard of an engine under development that used a different thermodynamic cycle than the piston engine, I think it was a STAR engine, using the same cycle as turbines. Anyone have an update on this engine? I believe it was one of the universities in Texas that was working on it.

Has anyone looked into the rumors of Oil Companies buying the rights to inventions that threaten their profits, i.e. cars that run on water and other seemingly futuristic concepts. Im just curious as to what kinds of ideas are being squahsed because of greed.

I have heard of the 100 mpg carburator being invented several years ago and the inventor (along with his invention) mysteriously disappearing, but I don't know if this is fact or fiction.

For a bit of fact though, look what the Europeans are achieving right now with diesel technology. Volkswagen 100km / litre prototype, Audi 24hr of Le Mans, JCB, yeah thats right, the mob that make backhoes, 350mph / 560kph at Bonneville with a vehicle powered with a "modified" backhoe engine. The efficiency is there, the emissions are way out there and can still be improved, the fuel is renewable. Add to the diesel progress what private concerns in the US (and of course Japanese and European manufacturers)have achieved with Electric drive technology and it seems obvious to me that we have the ability to solve the problems of pollution, waste and uncertainty that today plague transportation. Think also, we are only just beginning to hear from India and China. China is reported to have over 20 million Engineers.

In response to my previous reply, I found the website on the new engine design:

http://starrotor.com/

I think I first heard of it on CR4, many moons ago. Check it out at the above website.

THE PISTON HAS TO BE REMOVED FROM THE EQATION FOR RESEARCH TO HEAD IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION. INTERNAL COMBUSTION HAS RUN ITS COURSE! WE HAVE TO REMOVE THE TIRES FROM ARE CARS AND SEARCH FOR NOT AN ALTERNATE FUEL BUT A NEW TECHNOLOGY.