Quote:
Originally Posted by Arragonis
But more dangerous than a full tank of flammable liquid plus fully charged batteries, or even the same plus an autogas tank ?
Just pondering.
|
We never consider the possible dangers of what we put into our gas tanks.
To answer your question:
Even if we separate the gasses and store them safely, the energy conversion of electrolysis is just too poor. P-hack was correct in assuming about a 30% efficiency in converting electrical energy to chemical energy via electrolysis. Using batteries is 50-85% efficient. Direct mechanical to mechanical is probably the highest in efficiency as a forum member has pointed out and his long work in hydraulic hybrids can attest to this. Just behind is electrical to Capacitor storage at about 85% and above though new capacitor technology is pushing 100%.
The other problem is use of the stored gasses. Augmenting the fuel stream in the gasoline engine will only return us probably 15% as I outlined in an above post - assuming ideal application. Using the gasses in a fuel cell sounds promising until you realize the cost and the need for a certain amount of batteries or capacitors to buffer the power output.
Off the top of my head, I think this is a non starter, but I haven't touched on all possibilities. Electrical to electrical storage is just more efficient.