Automobiles hybrids

New vehicles, propulsion systems, and fuels are on the horizon hybrid automobiles (combining an electric motor, batteries, and a gasoline or diesel engine), better electric cars, greater use of compressed natural gas (CNG) and propane for urban fleet vehi-... 

Table 1 shows the relative production of CO2 per tonne of metal produced. As shown, the largest producer of CO2 is indeed the iron and steel industry, but it should be noted that is primarily because of the high consumption of iron and steel. Lighter metals, such as aluminum, will likely be used as a replacement for steel in hybrid automobiles and in low-density building materials. So there could be an increase in CO2 gas production as more of the lighler density metals are consumed to replace steel. 

When the energy efficiencies of the electric motors and transmission in the fuel cell automobile are taken into account the total system efficiency will be about 50% to 70%. The fuel cell automobile will have about four times the energy efficiency of current automobiles and possibly twice that of the new generation of hybrid automobiles. These comparisons are shown in Table 7.2... 

AN ADVANCED LMON BATTERY pack built for use in Mercedes S-class hybrid automobiles. 

Although development of commercially attractive hybrid vehicles would not occur until the middle of the twentieth century, the Austrian engineer Ferdinand Porsche made a first-series hybrid automobile in 1900. Within a short time, however, the commercial attractiveness of mass-produced internal combustion engines became the force that dominated the automobile industry for more than a half century. Experimentation with hybrid technology as it could be applied to other forms of transport, especially motorcycles, however, continued throughout this early period. 

Hybrid automobiles could not function well without the use of rare earth metals. Lanthanum is used in their very efficient energy-storing batteries, and powerful neodymium-containing magnets are used in their electric motors. 

Figure 17.27 illustrates an industrial ecosystem based on the production of methane fuel from renewable biomass and wind energy sources. Methane is the ideal clean-burning fuel for virtually all applications that currently use fossil fuels except for aircraft. With ultra-efficient hybrid automobile technology, methane can be used as motor fuel giving an acceptable range between refueling. With... 

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