News Lasers could replace spark plugs in car engines

[Notebook]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13160950

I'm off to buy shares in Champion.

N.

 

[Sky Captain]

Pretty cool, especially since it is supposed to increase efficiency of fuel combustion.

Now when starting the engine with laser plugs you should yell loudly Commence primary ignition!

 

[Grover]

It would be a short lived invention, because petrol/diesel wont last forever

 

[Moach]

It would be a short lived invention, because petrol/diesel wont last forever

indeed, but most other fuels (ethanol, propane) would still need external ignition... and diesel doesn't really require spark plugs as it ignites under compression

seems like a good invention to me :thumbup:

 

[Artlav]

petrol/diesel wont last forever

Said H. G. Wells in 1913 with atomic engines in mind. 100 years later, nothing really changed, unfortunately. What would be 100 years from now?

 

[Wishbone]

How long will the igniter last and will it be less susceptible to soot than spark plugs?

 

[Brycesv1]

if its a laser it wouldnt actually have to come in contact with anything that could damage it. i imagine there would be SOME way to isolate it, otherwise you'd very quickly damage the sensitive laser components

 

[T.Neo]

I would also want to know what the durability is... and also what the cost of the component would be.

 

[Izack]

Now when starting the engine with laser plugs you should yell loudly Commence primary ignition!

What? You don't do that already? :uhh:

Said H. G. Wells in 1913 with atomic engines in mind. 100 years later, nothing really changed, unfortunately. What would be 100 years from now?

Ever hear of the [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Nucleon"]Nucleon[/ame]? I can't say I miss seeing rolling radiation hazards in the hands of the everyman. They're dangerous enough with the cars they drive now.

 

[T.Neo]

What we actually need are ultraminiaturised aneutronic fusion reactors. :rofl:

:dry:

 

[Artlav]

Or simply very dense batteries.
Maybe we should not look into fusion of existing stuff, but making something that would fission back without bad radiation.

Then, we can dam the southern ocean from africa to antarctica and have a battery charging station for all the stuff out there.

 

[T.Neo]

Maybe I don't want Port Elizabeth to be the side of a five kilometer thick damn, er, dam...

 

[fsci123]

Last time i checked oil will run out in 37 years and far before them the price of gas will go up to $81 a gallon as government hoard whats left to power military vehicles and emergency seevices... Haha... Look at that...

 

[T.Neo]

Where did you hear this? SurviveTheComingOilApocalypseAndListenToMyIdeologicalNonsenseAboutHowBadHumanityIs.com?

 

[Linguofreak]

It would be a short lived invention, because petrol/diesel wont last forever

Fossil fuels will eventually run out, but cars, airplanes, etc. will probably still be powered by liquid hydrocarbons. The only difference will be the source of the hydrocarbons (agriculture rather than drilling).

Last time i checked oil will run out in 37 years and far before them the price of gas will go up to $81 a gallon as government hoard whats left to power military vehicles and emergency seevices... Haha... Look at that...

No, prices will go up until biofuels are cheaper than petrofuels. Then people will simply stop buying petrofuels, the biofuel industry will start growing, and then prices will grow cheaper as the biofuel industry develops economies of scale.

 

[Wishbone]

We could use agriculture or any other source of C, H, O compounds, and convert them to energy-dense hydrocarbons by a few methods, including Fischer-Tropsch and its kindred...

 

[fsci123]

Yeah but biofuels are pretty much weak compared to gas... And space, energy, and time have be devoted away from food...

Conversion to dense carbons takes energy... And research and funding and so far its not getting either...

 

[T.Neo]

fsci123, usually it's better to try and find solutions, rather than denying their possible existence...

The key might be something that can easily be grown, harvested, and converted into fuel, with the lowest energy requirement. And would not be edible, so as not to conflict with food supply.

Algae would be my personal bet for such an energy source.

Gas-to-liquids is not impossible, and not unfeasible. In fact, a South African company- [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sasol"]Sasol[/ame] specialises in gas to liquid and coal to liquid technology.

The difference between biofuels and fossil gas, is that fossil gas is a finite supply... a renewable supply is what is needed.

 

[Linguofreak]

Yeah but biofuels are pretty much weak compared to gas... And space, energy, and time have be devoted away from food...

Biofuels can have less energy density than petrofuels, yes, but once the cost of petrofuels exceeds the cost of petrofuels by about the same factor that the energy density of petrofuels exceeds that of biofuels, you'll start to see a transition. And I'm pretty sure that will happen long before prices reach your doomsday figure of $81 / gal.

As for agricultural resources diverted from food production, yes, that is a concern, but we're producing more than enough food to feed everybody: hunger these days is a political "dictators and such getting in the way of food distribution" problem, not a "we can't grow enough food to feed everybody" problem.

EDIT: Also, people are looking at using genetically modified algae to produce various biofuels, including what amounts to pretty much straight gasoline, and algae aren't part of the food supply.

 

[T.Neo]

As for agricultural resources diverted from food production, yes, that is a concern, but we're producing more than enough food to feed everybody: hunger these days is a political "dictators and such getting in the way of food distribution" problem, not a "we can't grow enough food to feed everybody" problem.

In developed nations, you have more than enough food to feed everybody... but in undeveloped nations, many of the advanced farming techniques and such that support a large portion of the world's population, simply are not available.

Not only can this lead to food supply problems, but it can lead to poor land use (often of already poor land), which leads to deforestation and habitat destruction...

Service delivery problems in undeveloped nations tie deeply into social and political problems. If these were sorted out, standard of living would rise dramatically.

EDIT: Also, people are looking at using genetically modified algae to produce various biofuels, including what amounts to pretty much straight gasoline, and algae aren't part of the food supply.

If algae are in your food supply, suffice to say, you have problems supplying food (or you're trying to run a closed ecological system aboard a spacecraft).