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Electric cars are becoming more successful and
ubiquitous. The battery packs in these vehicles consist
of
1000’s on individual cells connected together. It should
be
a simple matter to replace just one of those cells with
the
common potato battery we’re all familiar with from
every
school Science Fair ever held.
There will obviously be issues about ease of replacement
of the potato from time to time, insect attack, odd
smells
and other trifles but the power capacity loss would be
negligible. These drawbacks would all be worth it if it
allowed people to leave venues by announcing “Gotta
go,
my Tuber is here.” I hope this idea isn’t already baked.
Bud the Spud 'pipeline'
https://www.youtube...watch?v=TNEg65rlnu4
precursor to [n_m_rm]'s conveyor [Sgt Teacup, Feb 13 2019]
[link]
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You can use a potato to run many low-current devices, such as
an alarm clock. I often get a potato clock. |
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//but the power capacity loss would be negligible// |
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Hmm, I await with interest the various scathing retorts to
that, [Max] appears to have dropped the ball, you out there
[8th]? |
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Concentrate the power of many potato's into a more
compact source of energy. |
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An alcohol fueled
combustion engine probably works better & the fuel storage
(fuel
alcohol fermented from potatoes) will take up a lot less
space
than the alternative requirements of several thousand (or
several
hundred thousand?) potato batteries. |
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But very baked of course. |
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//my Tuber...baked// Heh. |
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[Skewed] had inadvertently created a new drink/GMO/fuel grade: the Vodka Tuber. Or possibly has named the latest model Lada. |
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Do the potatoes have to be carried in the car or could you
have the car running on an electrified rail with the
potatoes
supplying the power externally? In that case this thing
could
go hundreds of miles per hour very easily. You'd need lots
of
potatoes to electrify the track but it'd work. |
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In fact, whole cities would be powered by this clean,
environmentally friendly power source. Vote for me and
I'll make it happen. I promise. |
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Given the power to weight ratio your rails are probably the
only (vaguely) plausible option [doc]. |
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I'm voting [+] contingent on that addendum. |
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Because who doesn't like stuff powered by potatoes? |
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Who needs clocks on the weekend? |
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This idea has the unfortunate consequence of
bringing money to Idaho and Ireland, where they will
not know what to do with it besides burn it for heat. |
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If the inhabitants of Idaho have finally grasped the secret of fire, that in itself is progress of a sort. |
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As to the idea, since the development of CANbus even the lowliest of automotive components such as lamps now contain microprocessors, so the idea of potato powered vehicles has already had its chips ... |
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// you out there [8th]? // |
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This would be the best way to power a mobile chip
van. It's a winner for me + |
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Mobile chip vans should be hybrids.. potato electricity &
used frying oil diesel. |
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How should ice-cream vans be powered ? |
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Giant hamster wheels with small children inside? |
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The ice-cream maker can simply divert some of the lard which forms the main ingredient of the kind of
ice-cream these vans sell into a suitable bio-diesel engine. |
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Anyone got even the faintest idea how many potatoes
would give the same power as a 2CV engine? |
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While I'm here, I was looking at US/UK road deaths
Like, 1937 US 37,000 compared to about 8,000 in the
UK. |
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Proof positive that driving on the left side of the road
is safest. |
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// how many potatoes would give the same power as a 2CV engine // |
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Just under a third of a medium British potato. |
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Obviously if you used inferior french potatoes, you'd need several sackfuls ... |
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If only I had known that when my 2CV was
struggling against a headwind on the motorway.
One potato, 2CV potato, 3 potato, 4.... |
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Could you hollow out a giant potato to use for the vehicle structure as well? |
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I s'pose a kinetic system, with very tall tower attached
to the car (or perhaps trained eagles) with many spuds
falling into a vertical conveyor belt could propel a car. |
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Afterthought, the hopper is graded, so using the
smaller spuds in town and the bigger ones for the open
road. Oh and the vertical conveyor belt has a device to
cut the spuds into chip-size. |
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//How should ice-cream vans be powered ?// |
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Some sort of cool technology obviously. |
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If you relocate the single (out of 1000) batteries, where that battery is a potato battery, at the windshield could an actual sprouted growing potato photosynthesize enough energy to keep the potato battery refreshed. I suppose you would use soil and water though... |
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// a device to cut the spuds into chip-size // |
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A vehicle fuelled by alcohol derived from fermented potatoes and biodiesel from used cooking oil could be equipped with a deep-fat fryer heated on the exhaust manifold, thus providing a handy cooking facility while also being nicely recursive. |
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Rather than fermentation, could dried potato starch be made into a slurry with biodiesel and burnt directly in a piston engine ? A gas turbine would probably be fine, altho there would be a little ash in the exhaust stream. |
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Just make it a steam engine, slice & dry your potatoes then
burn them directly ? |
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Maybe a Microbial starch fuel cell using a mash that can be eaten when spare tire is empty. |
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Future proofing would be the development of a popcorn reactor. |
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Open-cycle steam engines are woefully inefficient. The most efficient ones are closed-cycle steam turbines, but you need a big heatsink for best efficiency. |
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