Israeli firm developing electricity-generating roads and other foward thinking ideas

[Elliott18t]

This is somethign I read while reading the car lounge as usual :P

I thought it was a pretty good/new idea.

http://www.motorauthority.com/content/thumbs/r/o/road_light_blur_autobahn_main630-1211-636x360.jpg
http://www.motorauthority.com/israeli-firm-developing-electricity-generating-roads.html

A group of Israeli engineers have created a system that allows certain types of roads to generate electricity just by driving over them. The Israeli engineers behind the project claim that a 1km stretch of the power-generating asphalt will generate 400kW - enough power to run eight small cars.

The system works by embedding tiny piezoelectric crystals into the road. When cars drive over the crystals, they are 'squeezed' and thus generate a small electrical charge. The new 'electric road' will be tested next month when engineers in Israel drive over a stretch of tarmac embedded with the tiny piezoelectric crystals.

According to the Environmental Transport Association (ETA), if the system was installed on every stretch of British motorway it would generate enough energy to run 34,500 small cars. The director at the ETA, Andrew Davis, predicts that with the mass roll-out of electric vehicles in the near future, "it may be that roads themselves will provide some of the new fuel - certain vehicles could be powered entirely by the roads on which they drive."

The system differs to another electricity-generating road we reported earlier, developed by a Californian local. That system uses the kinetic energy of a truck barreling down a highway to compress tanks of hydraulic fluid located in plates on the road surface. This creates a pumping action that can turn a generator and produce electricity.

While the Israeli project is still undergoing testing, the hydraulic plate system is expected to be used by Oakland terminal operator SSA to supply around 5% of its energy needs.



discuss :cyberguy:

[twastheglow]

Interesting...

[The Captain]

We need more thinking like this.

[DropTopChevy]

So much for off roading....

[twastheglow]

So much for off roading....

You'd still be able to. The roads would just help regenerate electric power in your vehicle. That doesn't mean you couldn't fully charge your car at home and go "off roading".

[Kerplunk105]

I'm assuming the goal/hope would be for cars could absorb the electricity?

I wonder how much the road costs? :eek:

[Turbo s60R]

I'm assuming the goal/hope would be for cars could absorb the electricity?

I wonder how much the road costs? :eek:

the cost is where the problem lies, our infrastructure is so old it would cost tens of billions of dollars just to update the roads to meet the standards of this product... good idea? o0o hell yeah! chances of it become reality? slim to none...

[Elliott18t]

if they could find a way to make it cost effective with all the chances of these electric cars coming out.. it would be a great idea.

[Turbo s60R]

i was expecting this to be almost like a trolley but with the power line embeded in the road but then again i think that would be a little on the dangerous side for pedestrians lol

[twastheglow]

i was expecting this to be almost like a trolley but with the power line embeded in the road but then again i think that would be a little on the dangerous side for pedestrians lol

Nah, only for super fat people.











So yeah, it wouldn't work in America. LOL

[Scapegoat]

awesome idea... forward thinking, MOAR.... please

[Elliott18t]

awesome idea... forward thinking, MOAR.... please

well there is this too

Waste coffee grounds offer new source of biodiesel fuel
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-12/acs-wcg121008.php

Researchers in Nevada are reporting that waste coffee grounds can provide a cheap, abundant, and environmentally friendly source of biodiesel fuel for powering cars and trucks. Their study has been published online in the American Chemical Society's (ACS) Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, a bi-weekly publication.

In the new study, Mano Misra, Susanta Mohapatra, and Narasimharao Kondamudi note that the major barrier to wider use of biodiesel fuel is lack of a low-cost, high quality source, or feedstock, for producing that new energy source. Spent coffee grounds contain between 11 and 20 percent oil by weight. That's about as much as traditional biodiesel feedstocks such as rapeseed, palm, and soybean oil.

Growers produce more than 16 billion pounds of coffee around the world each year. The used or "spent" grounds remaining from production of espresso, cappuccino, and plain old-fashioned cups of java, often wind up in the trash or find use as soil conditioner. The scientists estimated, however, that spent coffee grounds can potentially add 340 million gallons of biodiesel to the world's fuel supply.

To verify it, the scientists collected spent coffee grounds from a multinational coffeehouse chain and separated the oil. They then used an inexpensive process to convert 100 percent of the oil into biodiesel.

The resulting coffee-based fuel — which actually smells like java — had a major advantage in being more stable than traditional biodiesel due to coffee's high antioxidant content, the researchers say. Solids left over from the conversion can be converted to ethanol or used as compost, the report notes. The scientists estimate that the process could make a profit of more than $8 million a year in the U.S. alone. They plan to develop a small pilot plant to produce and test the experimental fuel within the next six to eight months.

Biodiesel is a growing market. Estimates suggest that annual global production of biodiesel will hit the 3 billion gallon mark by 2010. The fuel can be made from soybean oil, palm oil, peanut oil, and other vegetable oils; animal fat; and even cooking oil recycled from restaurant French fry makers. Biodiesel also can be added to regular diesel fuel. It also can be a stand-alone fuel, used by itself as an alternative fuel for diesel engines.


###

*The research in this press release is from a copyrighted publication, and stories must credit the journal by name or the American Chemical Society.

News media may obtain a full text of this report ("Spent Coffee Grounds as a Versatile Source of Green Energy") in ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry by contacting Michael Bernstein.

Contact:
Mano Misra, Ph.D.
Professor
Director, Center of Materials Reliability
University of Nevada-Reno
Reno, Nevada 89557-0042
Phone: 775-784-1603
Fax: 775-784-4949
E-mail: misra@unr.edu

The American Chemical Society—the world's largest scientific society—is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress and a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related research through its multiple databases, peer-reviewed journals and scientific conferences. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio. The ACS Publications Division currently publishes 35 leading peer-reviewed journals in the chemical and related sciences, including the flagship Journal of the American Chemical Society, as well as Chemical & Engineering News, the Society's weekly news magazine.




now i realllllly want that mkvi golf TDI....

[twastheglow]

^ So why the **** isn't this taking off?!?!

[Elliott18t]

was just posted 2 days ago

[twastheglow]

was just posted 2 days ago

Oh. :o LOL

[Scapegoat]

so our cars can run on caffeine too... sweet. i think the way to go would be to build the fuel processor into a vehicle... i would certainly take a two seater the size of a traditional 4 seater if i could pour my spent coffee grounds into a funnel which then gets converted into the biodiesel.

[Elliott18t]

so our cars can run on caffeine too... sweet. i think the way to go would be to build the fuel processor into a vehicle... i would certainly take a two seater the size of a traditional 4 seater if i could pour my spent coffee grounds into a funnel which then gets converted into the biodiesel.

next...

cars that run off of trash and fly 80 some miles an hour into the future!

http://neatorama.cachefly.net/images/2006-05/back-to-the-future-car-dolorean.jpg:-p

[Scapegoat]

mr fusion pwns you

[boostedmr2]

I have an idea... develop a flexible road service and place it on a sort of water cushion sort of like a water bed. The theory is as a car drives down the road it will move water. Connected to the bag would be water lines that connect to generators. Same concept as using a river to make electric. Simple but could be efficient. What do you think lol?

[Elliott18t]

would probably cause more drag on cars, thus making it less fuel efficient.

[Scapegoat]

I have an idea... develop a flexible road service and place it on a sort of water cushion sort of like a water bed. The theory is as a car drives down the road it will move water. Connected to the bag would be water lines that connect to generators. Same concept as using a river to make electric. Simple but could be efficient. What do you think lol?

how much more dangerous do you want the roads to be?

[SovXietday]

I have an idea... develop a flexible road service and place it on a sort of water cushion sort of like a water bed. The theory is as a car drives down the road it will move water. Connected to the bag would be water lines that connect to generators. Same concept as using a river to make electric. Simple but could be efficient. What do you think lol?

I take it you don't have a highschool physics degree?

[boostedmr2]

how much more dangerous do you want the roads to be?

Its not like we would be driving the high seas lol. Who knows maybe this could improve driving safely somehow with the correct design. Maybe by creating a ripple/ gentle lip in front of tires would help slow a vehicle faster, compensating for slow driver reaction times. I'm just being optimistic man its just a theory lol Also it would be completely smooth without pot holes and uneven bumps

[Elliott18t]

this would still cause a problem since the ripple when stopped would still flow and hit other cars, not saying it would be a huge one. im assuming that the roads wouldn't be asphault or anything of the like because the would crack and create holes.. especially in the winter. kinda how we get cracks already from the freezing unfreezing process already.not really sure how it would work..if at all. but a creative idea.

[boostedmr2]

this would still cause a problem since the ripple when stopped would still flow and hit other cars, not saying it would be a huge one. im assuming that the roads wouldn't be asphault or anything of the like because the would crack and create holes.. especially in the winter. kinda how we get cracks already from the freezing unfreezing process already.not really sure how it would work..if at all. but a creative idea.

what if the road surface was like an advance form of rhino lining grip yet flexible. that wouldnt crack and get holes very durable lol

[Elliott18t]

weight of multiple cars of various weights and sizes?

[twastheglow]

I'm sure trying to make a sudden stop to avoid an accident would go off without a hitch. LOL

[boostedmr2]

well this whole contraption could be burried underground so is should be as stable as the ground. Regardless they should use some form on kinetic energy to generate electricity from roads. High traffic roads could power who knows what... There is some smart people in this world they should be able to come up with something cheap to do this function.

[SovXietday]

You do realize that rivers make electricity by turning large rotors via flow of water... right?

If you're suggesting they do it with the hydraulic pressure, you're already too late and you need to read the thread better. Been done.

[twastheglow]

So...about using coffee grounds in my gas tank...

[SovXietday]

So...about using coffee grounds in my gas tank...

I just have this hilarious image in my mind of this.

Imagine a guy sitting in his prius shaking like a leaf in a hurricane talking faster than a bullet train trying to say he's using coffee grounds as fuel, LOL.

[twastheglow]

I just have this hilarious image in my mind of this.

Imagine a guy sitting in his prius shaking like a leaf in a hurricane talking faster than a bullet train trying to say he's using coffee grounds as fuel, LOL.

I can imagine him doing that. Him drinking WAY too much coffee so he can make the planet healthier all while killing himself with caffeine.

[Scapegoat]

i'm glad boostedmr2 isn't leading the way to our future in science... god help us all if he was

[boostedmr2]

i'm glad boostedmr2 isn't leading the way to our future in science... god help us all if he was

i never said i was a scientist lol i was just bored and started thinking