Suggested Answers - Third Quiz

[johnkarls]

.
SUGGESTED ANSWERS TO THE THIRD SHORT QUIZ

(Ordinarily, we have only two quizzes during the once-a-quarter five-week gap between meetings - however, the first question of the second quiz inadvertently uncovered the fact that the Obama Administration is going in the opposite direction from Europe, Japan, Canada and even California, prompting a third quiz!!!)


Question 1

What is the range of the batteries of the Chevrolet Volt?

Answer 1

40 miles.


Question 2

What happens when the Chevrolet Volt exceeds the 40-mile range of its batteries?

Answer 2

A gasoline engine kicks in. But instead of powering the car directly, it powers a generator that delivers more electricity to the batteries that continue to power the electric motor.


Question 3

How many times more greenhouse gases (and other pollutants) are produced by the Chevrolet Volt than a comparable gasoline engine DURING the first 40 miles between re-charging?

Answer 3

Since all additional electricity in the U.S. for the last several decades has been (and for the foreseeable future will continue to be) produced from coal-fired electrical plants (or the occasional new plant fired by natural gas which is also a hydrocarbon), the result is an environmental disaster.

75% of the energy content of the coal or natural gas is consumed in the process of generating the electricity.

Accordingly, a plug-in electric vehicle such as the Chevrolet Volt produces on an all-in basis 400% of the greenhouse gases that a conventional gasoline-engine vehicle of comparable power would have produced.

Moreover, coal contains many other pollutants such as sulfur. Producing and using electricity typically produces 700% of the sulfuric acid (think “acid rain”) than the same amount of power from a conventional gasoline engine.


Question 4

How many times more greenhouse gases (and other pollutants) are produced by the Chevrolet Volt than a comparable gasoline engine AFTER the first 40 miles between recharging?

Answer 4

If the on-board gasoline engine that kicks in to generate more electricity consumes the same 75% of the energy content of the fuel being converted to electricity that the nation’s electric utilities consume, then the environmental disaster that is the Chevrolet Volt (400% more greenhouse gases and 700% more acid rain) continues even AFTER the first 40 miles between recharging.


Question 5

What would be required in terms of the source of energy used by the country's electrical generation plants before the ecological disaster that is the Chevrolet Volt can be eliminated for the FIRST 40 MILES between re-charging?

Answer 5

The energy source for the electrical-generation plants would have to be a non-hydrocarbon (coal, oil and natural gas are all hydrocarbons).

There are only two clean energy sources that have ever been economical. However (1) for many decades, the U.S. has not built any new dams to produce hydroelectric power, and (2) the U.S. has always had a phobia that has prevented it from following the example of France, which for many decades has produced more than 100% of its electricity from nuclear plants and exported the excess electricity to the rest of Europe.

Wind and solar are uneconomic at the current worldwide price for oil. There are two further barriers to their use. First, the members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (“OPEC”) that have long-lived reserves have historically been willing to flood worldwide markets with oil whenever its price becomes high enough to make economic alternative fuels such as wind and solar. Second, the federal government historically has been unwilling to guarantee to investors in wind or solar projects a worldwide price for oil that would make their projects economic (and the federal government has been unwilling to assume that risk directly by itself building the wind and solar plants).


Question 6

Instead of a plug-in electric vehicle, has the European Union created a "hydrogen highway" (a network of hydrogen fueling stations)? Did the European Union in 2007 devote massive funding to improving the technology of hydrogen cars? Did the European Union (whose population is much larger than the United States) create uniform standards for hydrogen vehicles so that quite a few major automobile companies are already marketing hydrogen vehicles in Europe?

Answer 6

Yes. Yes. Yes.


Question 7

Instead of a plug-in electric vehicle, has Japan created a "hydrogen highway" (a network of hydrogen fueling stations)?

Answer 7

Yes.


Question 8

Instead of a plug-in electric vehicle, has British Columbia/Canada created a "hydrogen highway" (a network of hydrogen fueling stations)?

Answer 8

Yes.


Question 9

Instead of a plug-in electric vehicle, has California created a "hydrogen highway" (a network of hydrogen fueling stations)?

Answer 9

Yes.


Question 10

Did the Obama Administration propose eliminating all funding for hydrogen-car research from the federal budget? Was the Obama Administration overruled by Congress?

Answer 10

Yes. Yes.


Question 11

Why is the Obama Administration insisting on a UNILATERAL APPROACH in which it not only opposes our European allies, Japan and Canada, but cannot even get along with California?

Answer 11

Who knows?


Question 12

What is the combined population of the European Union, Japan and Canada - compared to the United States? What happens to the small minority that is the U.S. population if California is subtracted from the U.S. and added to the E.U., Japan and Canada?

Answer 12

491.6 million (E.U.) + 127.3 million (Japan) + 33.2 million (Canada) = 652.1 million.
U.S. = 307.2 million.

Our major allies (652.1 million) + California (36.8 million) = 688.9 million.
The U.S. (307.2 million) less California (36.8 million) = 270.4 million.


Question 13

Is the Obama Administration likely to bankrupt General Motors again with its unilateral approach?

Answer 13

Yes.


AND A FEW MISCELLANEOUS QUESTIONS FOR EXTRA CREDIT =


A. Is hydrogen safe?

Answer A

Safer than gasoline.


Question B

B. How is hydrogen produced? Do the energy sources for hydrogen production also entail environmental challenges and are they significantly different?

Answer B

Hydrogen comprises less than 1/10 of 1% of the earth’s atmosphere. Although there are a few insignificant sources for producing hydrogen (e.g., biomass), virtually all of it has to be produced by breaking apart water molecules (H2O) into hydrogen and oxygen.

Breaking apart the water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen requires about the same amount of energy that is produced by combining hydrogen and oxygen into water (commonly called burning hydrogen).

The energy for breaking apart the water molecules comes from electricity generated from “the usual list of suspects” = coal, natural gas, hydro and nuclear.

Some countries are greenhouse gas/acid rain junkies – for example the U.S. where virtually all new electrical plants for decades have been coal-fired and China which builds a new coal-fired electrical plant on average EVERY DAY.

However, some countries such as Canada are blessed with small populations and an abundance of rivers that can be dammed for new hydroelectric power whenever the need arises.

And some countries, such as France and Japan, conquered long ago their phobias about nuclear power for generating electricity.


Question C

C. What is the difference between the hydrogen + "fuel cell" vehicles being marketed in Europe by Honda, Mazda, etc., and the bi-fuel hydrogen/gasoline conventional engine that has been marketed in Europe for more than 5 years by BMW?

Answer C

Hydrogen and fuel cell vehicles burn hydrogen (producing water as the sole by-product) to produce electricity which propels the vehicle.

BMW’s bi-fuel hydrogen/gasoline conventional engine is its regular gasoline engine. When its hydrogen tank is exhausted (215-mile range according to the 1/24/2005 Newsweek article posted on our bulletin board), the engine automatically switches over to the regular gasoline fuel tank.