Whether or not you want to participate, I welcome comments.
I am looking to form a team to win the auto xprize, described at the site below. I know how to win. Do you have a better idea? http://www.progressiveautoxprize.org/auto/prize-details Basically, they aim to televise a series of "races" with the winner being awarded a substantial prize, something like $10 Million, plus, of course, priceless TV advertising. In fact, any car entered will get national publicity, winner or not. To win, a car must get 100 miles per gallon of "gasoline equivalent." There are two classes, two-seat cars with 100 miles unrefueled range, and four-seat cars with 200 miles unrefueled range. The fuel is supplied by the race committee and can be gasoline, diesel, biofuels, or electricity. There are other requirements, including a $5000 entry fee. In addition, a qualifying team must submit a business plan which shows how they will be able to deliver 10,000 cars a year at less than $80,000 per car. Cars with internal combustion (IC) engines don't have a chance. My Prius, which is technically sophisticated, gets perhaps 50 mpg, because the IC engine is at best about 25 per cent efficient. If the efficiency exceeded 50 per cent, it would be a winner (except for the requirement of 10 cubic feet of trunk volume), but that is impossible, given the thermodynamics of the IC engine. Electric cars with batteries are not only difficult technically, to get the range and performance (0-60 in 12 seconds), but they are pretty much ruled out by the price limit. State of the art batteries will cost more than $80,000 per car. Since the electrical equivalent of a gallon of gas is approximately 35 kW-hr, a car with a 200 mile range at "100 mpg" would have to store close to 80 kW-hr of energy. The competition for the two-seat car will be fierce, including three-wheeled "motorcycles", but it is not clear there will be a winner. I doubt that there is even an entry in the 4-seat, 200 mile class. Major auto manufacturers seem to be sitting this out. There is a way to win. Use the supplied electricity "fuel" but do not store the energy in expensive batteries or depend on expensive electric motors, controllers, etc. The answer is to use electricity to run a compressor, storing the energy as compressed air. There are no expensive and toxic metals involved. The Department of Energy (DOE) says compressed air systems are only about 15 per cent efficient, so an air car won't win. (There is one entered, the French Midi, but it can't win) DOE lacks imagination. The trick is to use "wet compressed air" (WCA), as described in my US patent, 5,832,728. The trick is to increase the energy storage efficiency by conserving heat. The air compressor is cooled by injecting water into the intake. The water cools the compressor, which would normally be air-cooled, heating up the atmosphere, by turning into steam, which is mixed with the compressed air at, say, 300 C. When the air is expanded through a "steam engine", the steam condenses, reheating the air. The input is ambient temperature air and water; the exhaust is ambient temperature air and distilled, drinkable, water. Thermodynamically, it is almost perfectly efficient. This process, energy transmission and storage with WCA, is suitable for propelling cars and for many other applications, such as storing wind energy for windless days and providing power to off-grid locations such as polar research stations and African villages. It could even be used for utility load-leveling. An obsolete electricity generating plant could be converted to using "green" WCA instead of coal-fired steam, resulting in perfectly "green" electricity, any time, at low cost. Winning the xprize would publicize the technology beyond the vehicle market. Skeptics, like the clods at DOE, will say it can't be done, but it has been done. After the patent was granted, it appeared that the principles had been proven in 1930. The diesel-pneumatic locomotive was more efficient that a diesel-electric locomotive, at one point saving 29 per cent in fuel, pulling the same train over the same route on the same schedule. Apparently the WCA trick was kept as a trade secret, which explains why it did not turn up in the patent search. Of course, in 1930,
German railways were not going to switch to diesels, so the invention was never adopted, and the railway bureaucrats did not seek other applications. So, I am looking for a sponsor who can build and enter a car for the xprize. Such a sponsor should have the facilities to convert an existing vehicle to run on WCA. For the two-seat car, a small sedan or hatchback could be converted, as long as about 30 cubic feet of air tanks could be fitted in behind the front seats. The existing engine and drive train could be converted to run on WCA. (A diesel would be best, but not essential) That involves a new or modified camshaft and WCA injectors applied in the spark plug holes. Controls, etc. would be needed, including a data link to the live TV presentation of the race. They demand an entry fee and a professional driver. The sponsor should have a "sales organization" to handle 10,000 deposits and the capital to build (buy and modify) the vehicles. A four seat vehicle with a 200 mile range is a bit more difficult, but I think it is feasible if one starts with van or extended cab pick-up truck with four seats and enough volume for the tankage. (The ideal would be to build a "platform" chassis, immensely strong, out of WCA tanks and perch a small, light body atop it, but that probably would be more difficult, given the time constraints. Save it for the Mark 2 version) The team should probably also include a manufacturer of air compressors and/or storage tanks. If the race committee will allow it, there should be a "filling station" consisting of a compressor and large storage tanks. Then the vehicle could recharge in minutes from the stored WCA, something no battery powered car could match. Assuming 10,000 cars, the infrastructure to charge batteries would be much more expensive than a few filling stations, each of which could accommodate many vehicles. Assuming stations were spaced along the interstate highways, one could drive coast to coast, pausing only minutes at a time to recharge, instead of the hours required by an electric car to recharge. WCA scales up nicely. An 18-wheeler truck could get along on tanks of a volume comparable to a large sleeper cab. If the WCA is compressed with a "green" power source, say a wind turbine instead of coal-generated electricity, the entire transportation system would be zero-emissions, essentially carbon free. One could sell "carbon offsets." I am Erik Buck. You can e-mail me at esbuck@aol.com or esbuck@gmail.com.
Automotive xprize (invitation to discuss)
Re: Automotive xprize (invitation to discuss)
