ENGINES FOR THE FUTURE

One of the most important problems in the world is air pollution. Industrial  production, transports and many human activities essential to welfare and survival pollute our planet. So we need to find new ways to produce things and to travel.

In this article I’m focusing on the automotive industry and what it’s been invented to reduce emissions.

When we say “car” we are used to thinking of an automobile with an internal combustion engine. These engines are fed with petrol, Diesel or GPL and are based on the same principle. Pistons, through the explosion of the fuel, flow up and down in the cylinders and the piston rod the pistons motion in rotary motion. This kind of engines emits CO2.

According to recent researches, scientists have discovered that a diesel engine emits more CO2 than petrol or GPL engines, even if it consumes less fuel. So it can be taken away from the market in the next years and the same destiny expects petrol or GPL engines but in a further future.

WHAT ARE THE FUTURE ENGINES AND WHAT ARE THEIR PROBLEMS?

The production of new types of motors started about 10 years ago when Toyota, a Japanese car industry, designed the first hybrid cars with a petrol engine, less powerful than petrol-engine only  cars, and an electric engine working in the same time.  Its battery is recharged by an alternator through the power of the internal combustion engine.

 There is another type of hybrid car called “plug-in” hybrid. It is very similar to a normal hybrid car but you need to recharge the battery at the superchargers. The negative aspect is that it takes over 4-5 hours  to recharge their batteries ( and we only have them in the biggest cities like Rome or Milan). You can also recharge their battery  with the power in your house but it would take about 13-15 hours.  Other issues are the autonomy of those batteries, their production and their disposal; in fact,  they can be very dangerous for the environment.

Totally electric cars like Tesla are technological and powerful and they have two electric motors, one on the front and one on the rear of the car. Tesla is a good solution for people living in Northern Europe but in Italy there aren’t many superchargers,  so it wouldn’t be easy to travel in this type of car.

In the North of Europe fuel cell cars or hydrogen cars are spreading. Fuel cell technology replaced batteries. Electric energy is generated with the opposite process of electrolysis. Hydrogen id divided in fuel cells and this split generates electric energy, that feeds electric engines, and water, that will be expelled.

Fuel cell cars have two  big problems:

-  electrolysis, which is needed to produce the hydrogen to feed this cars, is difficult, expensive and dangerous

-   the only hydrogen distributor in Italy is situated in Bolzano.

These are the types of car that in the future will replace the cars we are used to driving and seeing aroung. These technologies are needed  to help our world try to decrease CO2 emissions.

DAVID P.