LENR is finally coming into its own as a science. Universities and governments, as well as scientific organizations, are starting to sit up and take notice of the work being done by Andrea Rossi and others in the fields of LENR and cold fusion.
Rossi himself has said that domestic vehicles powered by an E-Cat are 20 years, at least, in the future. However, he is not the only engineer working on the problem. With his domestic E-Cat in certification right now, it could be possible that automotive engineers are waiting for access to one of the devices for the purpose of developing a personal vehicle that uses E-Cat power.
With LENR gaining more respectability, and engineering work being done on small, waste-heat engines, it could be that E-Cat power for vehicles can either aid or replace small internal combustion engines more quickly than we would think.
Jonathan
July 15, 2012
Well assuming that Blacklight Power and Rossi release their tech in similar timeframes, I think we will never see an e-cat powered car because all cars will run on the CIHT Blacklight tech. Direct to electricity is so much simpler.
Alain
July 15, 2012
20 years is quite long, but regulation and safety will make it slower than what thechnology allow.
With LENR Cars SARL project you understand that a prototype based on Defkalion reactor can be made in one year, just a concept car.
The price and usaeability will not be good for maisntream.
Their level 2 project, will in my opinion take the usual time to design a car, about 5 years, not more because it can use existing technology and LENR is simpler than combustion engine, not less because turbines in vehicle , and cooling, are really the big challenge. However they have 5 years to solve thos technocal problems, while they do the usual design beside.
so for me good classic car will be on the market in 7 years, first for some application, like taxi, van, city cars, them for multi-purpose cars, with declination in small/big cheap/luxury…
it might be more expensive to buy but less to use, so might be associated with a loan.
there is data and iscussion on the feasibility of that
http://lenrforum.eu/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=261
that is engineer concern, science is done.
mirko
July 15, 2012
the engeneer have to think on EREV schema whit batteries to do a Buffering work
kwhilborn
July 16, 2012
3 options for cars are…
a) Create electricity on board for electric cars. Without battery dependency vehicle size is no concern. Electric cars are already on the road.
b) Create hydrogen at service stations or create it directly on board the vehicles. Hydrogen vehicles are already on the road and many existing cars and trucks could run on hydrogen with very little modification.
The above 2 examples require little new engineering, as they only require the addition of trunk/trailer units that generate the fuel/electricity.
c) Steam Engine. Some say this might be a new excuse to bring back steam power in cars however it would require new car designs that are still in the dream stage. There may be steam cars.
I saw a blacklight comment above. As nice as their product looks they really do make the same claim every few years with third party verification’s and the whole bit. If they really do have something then they may have competition from Rossi.
Hill Country
August 12, 2012
“Cyclone Power Technologies” has already built an advanced steam non- turbine device and are slated to attempt Land Speed Record in October 2012 at Bonneville!
Jim
July 18, 2012
I can’t wait until we see the e-cat generating power for cars. I am convinced that someone will buy the 1MW units and start generating ethanol from CO2, and drive the cost of gas down while we’re waiting for steam cars to come out.
But when the hotcat is available for sale, I can see lots of individuals working on powering their cars with these, even if mfrs don’t sell them for another 10 years. I wouldn’t be surprised if these come faster just because of demand. Who wouldn’t want a car that can go for 6 months between refuels?
Add in self driving car technology, and the world is going to seriously change in the next 15 year.
william
July 20, 2012
I can’t see how ethanol can be made from CO2 with 100 degree C heat. Distilled maybe, keep a greenhouse warm maybe, but thermochemically, no.