Published: May 12, 2008 08:01 am            

Biopetroleum, electricity could power future vehicles

NORMAN, Okla. — So what happens next?

Has the gas- powered, V8 engine gone the way of the dodo? Will the future bring Jetson-like flying vehicles fueled by household trash?

Or will the countries of the world destroy themselves fighting over what’s left of the globe’s oil?

No one knows for sure.

But if one University of Oklahoma professor has his way, the Middle East can keep its oil because the cars of the future won’t need gas — just an electrical outlet.

Dr. John Fagan, an OU professor of electrical engineering and director of the university’s Electric Vehicle Research Institute, said it’s time for American drivers to embrace the electric car.

“Electric vehicles are better for the environment and they can go about 100 miles on the equivalent of a half-gallon of fuel,” he said.

The cars, Fagan said, typically average about 100 miles per day.

“Most people drive around two. They run from home to work or the grocery store. And that’s where we need electric vehicles, in the cities.”

Today’s electric cars will go about 100 miles before needing a recharge.

“Right now, electric cars are not made to drive to Enid — that’s why God built the Lincoln Continental.”

Electric vehicles also have zero emissions, use renewable energy and are “much, much friendlier” to the environment. And while many are available for purchase now, Fagan said the country has yet to embrace them.

“There wasn’t much need for us when gas was $1 per gallon,” he said. “But with gas at $3.50 and expected to go higher, things have changed.”

That change could prove difficult for American automobile manufacturers.

Over the next five years, Fagan predicts foreign automobile manufacturers will “hammer” American car companies with wave after wave of electric vehicles.

“Some of the Japanese automobile manufacturers are getting ready to release electric vehicles here,” he said. “Toyota is about ready to bury the American car companies, their electric cars are going to hit our shores very shortly and American car makers are going to be, once again, holding the bag.”

And while Fagan believes the gas powered vehicle will remain, fueling that vehicle will be expensive.

Real, real expensive.

“Oil is predicted to jump to $200 per barrel in just a few years,” he said. “That means $6 gas. That’s scary, but it takes prices hitting a point like that before people will act. Right now, with gas at $3.50 we’re just at the bitching and moaning stage.”

Hence the need for electric.

Fagan said electric vehicles have fewer moving parts and have the same features as gas-powered vehicles.

“Our electric trucks have power steering, radios, air conditioning, everything a “regular” car has,” he said. “But they are much quieter. We developed a racing car that has reached speeds of 223 miles-per-hour.”

But electric cars aren’t perfect.

Cold weather, battery wear, speed and battery range are all issues which have conspired to limit the electric vehicle’s appeal to the general public.

“In some ways, they (electric cars) have been the oversold and the under achiever,” he said. “They still can’t deliver the range of a regular car.”

Hope rests in the next generation of batteries, which, Fagan said, might solve some of those problems.

“Battery technology is changing,” he said. “We will have far better technology in, say, 10 years. But we’ll have electric cars here in five years, I believe.”

But electricity isn’t the only alternative.

Other vehicles include hybrids, vehicles using fuel cells and microturbines, vehicles running on fuel made from renewable natural resources.

“During both the Nixon and Reagan administrations, lawmakers were very favorable to alternative energy vehicles,” he said. “Then, there was big battle between the oil companies and the utilities to sell energy. And the companies backed off. That’s the real battle — not the car — but who is going to supply the energy for that car.”

Currently, engineers have the technology to build a car that will “burn any flammable fluid.”

“In the ’50s Chrysler developed the turbine, but it didn’t last,” he said. “Why did the turbine car fail? Why did Chrysler pull turbines back and crush them?”

And while Fagan is hesitant to answer, he does believe Americans haven’t “felt enough economic pain” yet for them to change the type of vehicle they drive.

“It usually takes an emergency,” he said. “When gas hits $5 that’s when someone will start doing something. When gas hits $6 per gallon, that’s when we’ll all start doing something.”

Yet another alternative exists with compressed natural gas.

“Microturbines love natural gas,” he said. “And CNG is a great fuel. The problem is the amount you can store in a vehicle.”

New designs, he said, will need to “rethink what we want in terms of how we refill our cars.”

“We need to rethink our means of locomotion, we need to produce more torque at the rear wheels for less fuel. Seriously, in 10 years, with an electric car and a microturbine, we could burn anything flammable,” Fagan said.

And though Fagan said he’s supportive of other fuel alternatives such as ethanol and gasoline made from switchgrass, those sources still require more fuel to produce than they create.

“Ethanol is a good idea. But it’s basically 100 proof corn whiskey. And the economics of ethanol are not there. You put three BTU (British Thermal Units) worth of energy into making one BTU worth of fuel.”

Switchgrass is better, he said, “but right now you can’t get the same number of gallons of fuel per acre that you do with corn. And you’re still going to have to ferment this stuff. The need, here, is a better way to synthesize ethanol.”

What is good, he said, is that the general public is beginning to pay attention.

“Gas prices at this level are a wake-up call,” he said. “People are beginning to see the need for alternatives. If we all get together and have the national will to come up with, say, a better battery and a better engine, we will be able to travel far economically, regardless of energy source. The goal is that future vehicles must use less energy per mile.”

If not, he said, the future could be bleak.

“If we do nothing in the next three to five years, you won’t be going to the lake, because you won’t be able to afford the gas. If we don’t stop automobile manufacturers from making the abominations in gas mileage they are making right now, we’ll be in trouble. Chrysler and GM will be gone and gas will be $6 or $7 per gallon.”

The solution, he said, “will take all of us.”

“Right now we are all beginning to think green, but we’re not there yet. Solving this problem is going to take action by the government and the will of the people.”



M. Scott Carter writes for The Norman (Okla.) Transcript.

        

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