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While not as convenient as a purely electric car, I wonder
if the economics of an electric car powered by a
superconducting motor would be workable.
Superconducting motors have coil winding with essentially
no electrical resistance so is more efficient (thus more
kilometres {not miles! Stick
to SI units!}}. The only
question is if the whole thing can be integrated cheaply,
and reliably.
The other issue is that nitrogen is also harder to transport
than electricity. But if it makes electric cars more efficient
then the savings might be worth the extra research on
superconductor motors and the refrigeration system
infrastructure needed to support it.
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The main problem with electric cars is not the motor; it is the
battery. Ordinary non-superconducting motors are about 95%
efficient in converting electricity into motion. Batteries, however,
are (according the the web search I just did) only about 80%
efficient in converting chemical energy into electricity. If that could
be increased to 90%, then the range of the car automatically goes
up by 1/8 (1/8 of 80% is 10%, and 80+10=90; an increase of 1/8
over some TOTAL "base amount" is 12.5%). |
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This is one of the reasons why I like flywheel energy storage over
batteries --they use motor/generators that operate at about 95%
efficiency, see? Obviously THAT could be improved by going to a
superconducting system. Unfortunately, the total amount of
energy that can be stored in any flywheel we can make, for
practical purposes in a car, will be LESS than the energy we can
store in existing chemical batteries (less range, therefore). So it
goes..... |
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5% is 5%... it would be good for a long trip: the LN2 is gonna heat up whether you're on the road or parked. |
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well, the venting vapor phase LN2 would be a great
way of improving the efficiency of the air
conditioning. |
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Problem is that high temperature superconductors (i.e.
that superconduct at the temperature of liquid nitrogen)
are not suitable for, and stop working in, the large
magnetic fields required in electric motors. The large
magnetic field superconductors need liquid helium as the
coolant. |
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