Question

Please write your own words a rough draft of your Research Proposal and I need research about hybrid car or tesla.

Answer 1

Draft For Hybrid car Technology

Technology is evolving to provide energy to non-conventional vehicles it is advancing. Inventions in batteries, fuel cells and hybrid vehicles are all options being researched to create the energy needed to run an efficient, convenient automobile. Developments in these technologies will determine whether mass production is feasible and whether a vehicle with comparable performance to an ICE can be produced at a competitive price. If it can, will the public accept it as a replacement? In May 2002 an article in AutoWeek stated that “automakers are in agreement in one thing: electric vehicles powered by hydrogen fuel cells represent the best hope for the long-term survival of the automobile.” The present argument concerns the source of the hydrogen to use to power the fuel cells. It could come from natural gas, gasoline, water, or a solid state. Once again the problem is that a convenient infrastructure does not exist to get the fuel on board. Building a hydrogen infrastructure, it is estimated, could take ten years or more and cost in excess of $100 billion. Alternatives are being explored. Solar-powered hydrogen stations developed and operated by Honda in California, Chicago’s stations in use by city buses, and Iceland’s and Denmark’s hydrogen programs are already in service. Other manufacturers are working on a hydrogen supply from on-board reformers that would convert methanol into hydrogen. The reformers are very complex and heavy. John Wallace, executive director of Ford’s alternative fuel vehicle Th!nk division, said in 2002, “It’s just another layer of difficulty that no one needs.” The Ztec Corporation in Woburn, Massachusetts, in 2002 was developing another option: an electric-powered hydrogen generator that could be installed in a filling station’s service bay. The generator would vaporize gasoline, mix it with steam, and then pass the mixture over catalyst, stripping hydrogen from the blend. The by-products of carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide would be collected for later disposal. The Big Threemanufacturers and researchers in universities and institutes see market potential and environmental benefits and are putting resources into research and development of fuel cells. The most efficient catalyst in fuel cell electric car technology is platinum, but with start-stop driving in town, the platinum dissolves, reducing its efficiency. In 2007 the Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York discovered that platinum electrocatalysts remain intact when gold clusters are added to them. The gold clusters protect the platinum from being oxidized. It seems a ratio of 10 percent gold to 90 percent platinum is optimal. Yes, it appears expensive, but since gold is about half the price of platinum, the price will not increase too much. Advances in microbial fuel cells, which generate electricity from microbes, are proving interesting because the process can use bio-waste to generate the electricity and return clean water to the environment. The process has come back into the research and design world as an alternate energy resource and a means to provide costeffective fuel for fuel cell vehicles. This research is moving forward but is still in its infant stages as a marketable product for the auto industry. The University of Aberdeen’s research in using biofuels (specifically ethanol) to generate hydrogen needed for fuel cells has more potential for reducing fuel cell costs in the short term and making them attractive alternatives to battery and battery hybrids. The automotive industry is at the beginning of a generational shift, a sea change that will eliminate the reliance on the standard internal combustion engine. Through this technology-driven change we may soon see an analogy to Moore’s law (that computer chips will double in speed every year) in the battery and fuel cell industry. In 2000, a technology analyst remarked, “There is an enormous backlog of innovative ideas in the technology development area.”Interest is developing in the energy industry in new possibilities for generating power. The availability of fuel cell kits (prices range from $9,000 to $15,000) for the budding amateur scientist and engineer may provide the next step in much the way that crystal sets of the early 20th century paved the way for advancements in the radio. The technology that is being created today points to solutions that will allow automobile manufacturers to produce an environmentally friendly electric vehicle that is better than the conventional technology currently used in the internal combustion engine, and at a competitive price.