Car driven by steam

[er10b]

I'd give it a go any day but mine would be wood fired.

[porpoisefathom]

there are better ways to set up a self-contained steam system...natural gas- methane,

propane, wood pellet(this is extremely viable)...these are solutions. in fact steam at the present time- is the ONLY viable alternative to fossil fuels...

[marcusfavonius]

It's interesting... but frankly, his setup would have looked antiquated compared to the high end steam cars of the 10's and 20's. The Doble is a perfect example of this kind of engineering done right. Entirely closed loop system with condenser, so no obnoxious clouds of steam billowing out the back of the vehicle. And the kerosene combustion boiler only turned on when temperatures dropped too low, rather than burning constantly in what's basically a big water heater much like old steam trains.

[Wodenhelm]

All these mini-compact, short-distance cars, simply will not work. The US is huge, we have large distances to drive, and things to haul. Revive the old-style steam cars, but refined with modern engineering, and THAT will work.

[KrazeeCain]

Just want to reiterate, this idea is completely retarded, and gives steam a bad name. One that it doesn't deserve.

[AngryVGFur]

Why would you use a home boiler instead of an onboard one? That makes it the same thing as a compressed air car. If you have a built-in boiler in the car, you could run it on things like bacon grease or corn!

[CashWatkins]

Funny. I was just reading a Time/Life Nature/Science Annual. In it, several companies were working on prototypes in which one company (Thermodynamic Sytems Inc.) claimed to have had one that ran 150 mph with a 0-60 time of 5 seconds. It only got 7-10 mpg. Oh - btw - this was in 1970.... I would imagine those developers were long ago killed by oil companies and/or various governments.

[KrazeeCain]

Also, steam engines can run on anything that burns. So if somebody were to develop a modern steam car, you could put whatever fuel you want in it. Hell, you could probably even mix up your fuels, and get a nice diesel/gasoline cocktail going in your gas tank ;)

[KrazeeCain]

I agree that steam should be considered as an alternative, but this guy's doing it all wrong. Somebody needs to develop a proper compact boiler, and use an alternative expander, such as a Wankel rotary design.I think if done right, steam could get better mileage than a compact diesel, while having an order of magnitude more torque than an EV. The fact that nobody has developed a modern steam engine is mindblowing. At the very least, somebody should make a steam engine for tractors, or something.

[doggiejigs]

@KrazeeCain the reason steam is no longer used to run steam engines is it is incredibly inefficient, not only does water take a lot of calories to boil off, but youd have to keep the fire burning all the time and fire makes pollution. Steam engines were made for SLOW speed, high torque thats why they were ideal for ships which burned cheap as in $2 a ton or less, easy to store non flammable like gasoline is- plentiful coal 100 years ago.

You also need constant water, and it freezes in winter.

[panoulis20]

@doggiejigs yea but how about steam turbine engines? the british had the fastest war ships in ww2 and they used steam, they outrun the Germans and took over the seas, steam single piston engine, the multistage pistons steam engine, then turbine steam, but in any case you need massive amounts of heat and its going to big ass size, it would be cool to see a steam engine using thermal energy from the sun to create steam and rotate a generator, thats free energy, panels would be better thought, :P

[doggiejigs]

@panoulis20 Turbines work diff, but the shortfalls and inefficiencies are still there, dont forget in WW2 everything was cheap, coal, fuel, labor, they could afford to waste huge amounts of coal, oil, wood and other resources to power a machine that got at best 10% efficiency.

A steam engine will typically have an efficiency in the range of 1-10%, but with the addition of a condenser and multiple expansion, it may be greatly improved to 25% or better.

[doggiejigs]

@doggiejigs Even 25% efficiency with a condensor and multiple expansion it's poor, you can't fit all that on a little car it does fit in an ocean liner or ship thats why it worked best in that application.

With coal at $2 a TON delivered back then, a 75% loss was nothing, Now its about $200 a ton PLUS truck delivery which is not cheap.

Steam is great, in the right application, solar wont quite make it and doesnt work at night for this.

[KrazeeCain]

@doggiejigs The basic theory behind steam engines is much more ideal than IC engines. Both engines are trying to capture the heat energy given by the fuel they burn. In an IC engine, the heat energy is absorbed very rapidly by the air in the cylinder. In a steam engine, the energy is absorbed by water, which creates the steam. This way, the fuel is burned completely and it's possible for ALL the energy to be captured. Back then they weren't efficient, but we have the tech to change that now.

[KrazeeCain]

@KrazeeCain Also, size is not an issue, the engine is much smaller than the equivalent IC engine, and the size of the boiler can be reduced to the size of a car battery (look up "Saab steam car").

[doggiejigs]

@KrazeeCain well yes, though gasoline is extremely volatile and energy dense which is why it works so well, there's a lot of wasted heat in IC engines but they dont use this heat to move the pistons. Another thing about IC is rotational speeds can be you know 4,000 RPM and oil pump lubricates in a closed CC, but a heavy mill steam engine would fly apart. I don't know how they would overcome limitations and weights that seem apparent with steam engines, at least the ones I know about.

[doggiejigs]

The biggest shortfall today in electric cars is the damn batteries, the key to that is developing a much better battery that's very compact, very light, charges FAST, and has lots of power. Lugging around 1,000# of batteries that cost half the price of the car to replace is not going to work.

[doggiejigs]

@KrazeeCain Hmm, I searched as you suggested & found this too: By 1923, Doble's steam cars could be started from cold with the turn of a key and driven off in 40 seconds or less. When the boiler had achieved maximum working pressure, the burner would cut out until pressure had fallen to a minimum level, whereupon it would re-ignite; by this means the car could achieve around 15 miles per gallon (18.8 litres/100 km) of kerosene despite its weight in excess of 5,000 lb

[KrazeeCain]

@doggiejigs Interesting that you mentioned the Doble, Jay Leno has a video of one on his website. I also asked him about the mileage that Abner Doble claimed, and he replied in another video that his Doble averages around 10 mpg. But that's still not too shabby. Also, if you want some really good information about the potential of modern steam cars, I strongly recommend searching "modern steam car" on google, and clicking on "Modern Steam". The article there is long, but well worth the read.

[doggiejigs]

@KrazeeCain Cool. I don't know, I still think a small turbo-charged diesel engine which can run on just about any oil as long as it's CLEAN, even waste cooking oils, is a good one too. Either way you STILL have to burn something to create the heat energy. Electric is not pollution free either, the smog goes out the powerplant's stack instead of the tailpipe. I do like steam engines tho :)

[KrazeeCain]

@doggiejigs I totally agree, I think there's room in the future for gas, diesel, steam and electric cars to co-exist. In fact, I just laugh whenever I hear someone saying that EV's are gonna replace all gas cars. As long as you have to charge their batteries, electric cars will not replace EVERYTHING, but they might replace most. Electric cars are the cleanest solution, but they're just not ideal for everyone.

[doggiejigs]

@KrazeeCain Batteries cant power big rigs and trucks, at best it will power passenger cars, but the cost and weight of batteries and issues with them has always been THE problem and all batteries have limited life and then have to be dealt with and they are expensive to replace. I was looking at the stanley cars, & jay Leno's- pretty cool, would be nice for around town short trips, but today ppl want to just turn the key and GO, & just put gas in and be done with it.

[doggiejigs]

@KrazeeCain That stanley I saw driven around town in video was said to use 40 gals of water and got about 7 mpg on the fuel. It ran on about 500 PSI, looked pretty cool. Another vid showed the engine, think it said it had 13 or 17 moving parts.

Leno mentioned a model T he has, no oil filter/pump, no water pump and very simple, bulletproof he said, Love it- simple is best!

[Mos6502]

Such an idea would be completely unworkable, except in a city that uses district steam heating. Nobody's going to pay to put in a boiler in their garage so they can charge their car. And if you get stuck somewhere long enough and the steam cooled down you'd be out of luck.

[ivankoran]

YES!!!!!!!! GENIOUS!!!!!!! is there any little thing at all that isn't cool about that?

[Abraamopiano]

IT GOES AT 10 KM PER HOUR. I CAN WALK THAT FAST.

[WWoodyW]

@Abraamopiano This thing sucks. A well built steam powered vehicle can go like 80. Plus you could pull a running semi backwards up a hill with the kind of torque steam gives you.

[FireDropTechnologies]

Thing is? this car is useing a engine style from 1886.

This guy needs to look up my web pages and the ,

Foisel Steam bike on The Steam car club of grate britain site.

Smaller bore, higher pressure over head cam. Better boiler.

Modern in every mechanical sence of the power train.

But still powered by steam.

[TheBattleWagon]

This Idea? Dumb! Right type of engine! wrong power source! Use the steam to compress air, cold air at that! then turn the car with that. Or how about a tank of liquid nitrogen, that has a small pre heater on the in line to the engine, so a small liquid volume will with very minnimal heat input, become a very large volume of air. Like I said Right Principal of move ment! Wroung form of storage!

[mariasman100]

Great idea. Any heat source, even solar thermal in some settings, can be used to generate steam. But why not go with a complete steam car with on board steam generator and condenser? The technology is available today.

[benthebug]

I'm in! Make me one!

[retardedbloke]

water need compressing not boiling.

[mynonsense]

sound slike a bunch of hot air

[pjmasterzz]

Imagine walking on the side walk when this car passes...

[felderup]

@mynonsense it does... but, more hot water dribbling... problem is, it is a viable technology, but they're demonstrating technology that's several decades older than current steam car tech, heck, that's not even 20th century steam tech.

[apache4541]

I want a buy steam car! replace Oil How much MPG per water gallion?

[RichardRoy2]

it's not the water, it's the energy you need to heat it to boiling point. Even if you take your hot water from a central point, it still has to be heated. You still have emissions. And I wouldn't want to be standing on the roadside when that thing goes by. Can you say "hot foot". Could you imagine getting into a collision with that thing, and rupturing the reservoir? Nothing like being scalded to death.

[severmine]

Drive by scalding

[uni4dfx]

I got one word to say to this: inefficiency

[YupHio]

agreed

[jasonlittlejohn89]

I especially love the part where they charge up the tank while wearing giant gloves. Man if this thing got in an accident and the tank was breached, everyone one would be cooked to death. Really storing hydrogen in a metal hydride and burning it or running on batteries is the way to go.

[dusteroo]

I knew before reading the comments, I'd stumble upon a rationalized negative comment ~ and here we go! the first one I've read!

[RichardRoy2]

I don't think it's so much rationalized, as rational. You have to apply energy to create steam. You don't escape producing pollution.

[fuunguus]

What you escape is the polluted air in cities. A lot of deceases are linked to polluted air in cities, these kind of technologies will save a lot of people from such misery.

[RichardRoy2]

Dumping the pollution outside of the city doesn't stop the pollution, it just gives you the rationalization to make more of it. It's like creating landfill sites so people in the city don't notice the wastfulness of the packaging they support the creation and disposal of. I say, keep the pollution in the city, so we'll be conscious of the amount we create. Maybe we'll make less that way.

[RichardRoy2]

You run into the same problems with these; Battery acid breach. Hydrogen tank breach. Then there's the issue of disposing of batteries. Hydrogen has storage problems, such as wont liquify till refridgerated below a certain temperature.

[ChomuSclavus]

Listen to me carefully- build a hermetically-sealed condensation system to recycle the same steam and use it over & over again. This WILL increase your range, I promise!

[RichardRoy2]

But you need energy to heat the water anyway. Why go through the extra loss of an additional stage? Water sources are not the problem.

[isegoria1]

By the comments here we have to revamp the way we look at transportation here in the US. In the US people buy huge vehicles to hide their own insecurities. I know some macho bone heads who would not drive one of these because someone would think their member was small. They have not figured out the big truck is not male enhancement.

I simply do not care. I would gladly give up my vintage motorcycle for an electric alternative that was valid and performed similar.

[RichardRoy2]

Agreed.

[timidgothica]

only emissions on the road is water? what about creating the steam for the stations in the first place?

[CarGuyZM10]

@timidgothica no worse than electric

[tearexdog]

Be aware that the boiler for steam engines burns extremely hot and at atmospheric pressure which completely expends any fuel thrown in the boiler.

[morethansalt]

This is another ridiculous idea... where does the inventor think the energy will come from to manufacture this lovely steam? STUPID.

[marsCubed]

fossil fuels burned in power stations can recover much of the carbon and also burn more efficiently. Your argument is as valid for electric vehicles as it is for steam. Also steam does not require batteries made from rare metals so carbon foot print is less there too. One can imagine vehicle making short trips as part of an industrial process, using high pressure steam by products to provide short trip transport at next to no net increase in carbon at all. yours is a ridiculous comment.

[rijkent55]

He may be a forest grower like me, who is constantly producing a renewable resource, wood.

My forest absorbs about 1000 tonnes of carbon per year, so its quite OK to burn a little bit of it again.

[deluxchixbone]

junk

with loads of more junk

[lithiumdream]

I can't see a positive side to this idea. The net amount of pollution will be far greater than a well-running fossil fuel powered car when the process of generating the steam (stationary burner), and the inefficiency of storing steam energy in the car is taken into account.

[LegendSaber]

I think it's a pretty neat idea. There are far better alternatives to gasoline on the market now, but perhaps this technology can be refined and improved upon until it becomes practical. For now it's little more than a kid's toy.

[OtakuZombie]

Yaay!! Steampunk cars!!!

[steelejk]

Try using this garbage in Alaska at -50F. - Alaskan

[ghidfg]

lol slow

[wwickeddogg]

So the stationary boiler is powered by gasoline?

That car that runs on anger seems way better.

[DudeParallel]

I'd still rather have the jetpack version.

[michellebroad]

The air car seems better.

[HouseOnLaprairie]

thats not going to happen

[frizspin175]

they still need gas to heat water quickly

[dreanwetter]

back to the industrial rev.

[djangobelgo]

Swinging from tree to tree is much more efficient. And it takes only 2 peanuts per hour to make the associated Tarzan noises.

[asumazilla]

Hey, I want to tell you about this thing I've seen that is faster and doesn't need to be recharged, it's called a bicycle.

[kushalaslayer]

Coo coo kacho

[LuFFyStRuM]

choo choo

[deluxchixbone]

it will never take off , its novel.

Now put an S.E.G. generator in that car with an electric motor and you'll never have to stop again. One thing though, the side effect would be negatively charged electrons. lol good for you:)

[Neamento]

Electrons are negatively charged. That's why they aren't protons.

[javierenchina]

if it's not safe to go more than 10 minutes range from a refuelling station....it could only work in a small metropolitcan area

[Neamento]

Fourty minutes on a tank that size? Yeah. This is never going to take off.

[antimoron08]

LAME pure LAMNESS this is dumb!!!!

why not just use compressed air? it would be much more better and give off more power/time

but atlest this vid is better then the other ones lol

[razielze]

that's as close as modern steampunk as it can get..

[grasseline]

bad ass let's scrap my 16 MPG rated car for one of these things

[pubtor]

steam to power cars in the future? Definitely huge progress here!

[Cheefoo124]

Does steam have a driver's liscence...?

Oh wait, never mind.

[dasar123]

I guess it's pretty damn noisy

[PlanckLimit]

Fantastic. Now, what we need are some Nuclear Steam-driven locomotives. :)

[narutopowers]

Steampunk!!!!

[fatrice217]

Steampunk indeed

[themunster2]

cool, but no way it will catch on

[BeondaPale]

this appears to be a step backwards

[PlanckLimit]

How so? The steam engine is one of the most thermally efficient engines, most operating over 40 percent efficiency. Steam can be created simply by heating water with electric elements, which requires much less energy than that put into pumping and refining oil or collecting Hydrogen.

[BeondaPale]

I agree about the pumping and refining of oil, but check out "bacterial fuel cells" where bacteria create hydrogen as a waste product of consuming OUR waste products

Now THAT is efficient

Think about it - the Electron Transfer Chain, the Krebs Cycle, -- HUMANS are hydrogen powered

[plbt101]

I think one Diesel engine already overpassed 50% (which ratio it was exactly, I do not remember). Manufactured by Sulzer/Wartsila, slow speed and large bore.

[Truthiness231]

*sigh*

This disappoints me, as I once took New Scientist seriously...

Could steam power enter the race for alternative fuel sources: no. Steam is a horrible "power source", as you have to combustion something to turn water into steam and then use that steam to power an engine. This is actually a step DOWN from the combustion engine, which uses the combustion directly on the engine rather than taking it to another form first (which will lose power, ultimately).

This is retarded...

[Truthiness231]

Also, the first patent for a steam powered car was granted in the late 16th century, and have been built since the 17th. This is OLD technology, inferior to the alternatives we're looking at.

For butt-fucking sack, we can power cars with hydrogen, batteries that put decade old power savers to shame, even the SUN! WHY IN FUCK WOULD ANYONE CONSIDER STEAM POWER?!?

[PlanckLimit]

Currently, hydrogen must be collect by either electrolysis or reforming; electrolysis requires high power input and reforming still requires fossil fuels. About the only way for hydrogen to succeed as a fuel is for a clean, high energy output source, such as fusion, to be developed. PV Solar cells are not yet efficient enough and require direct sunlight. Batteries have power output limitations and aren't very environmentally friendly when expended either.

Steam isn't that bad an alternative.

[0vrqq]

how do you heat the water? from a station. Where is the energy going to come from to heat up the water at the station? Geothermal? coal? oil? natural gas? tidal to a heating element to heat the water? wind, same as tidal? or solar? bio fuels? agreed it would reduce the co2 level to a certain degree but wouldn't you have to continually reheat the same water? taking more energy than needed and partly using up resources. No thanks I think I will stick to hydrogen stations. once converted it stays.

[Truthiness231]

Oops, combustion should be combusted* (had to edit because of character restrictions... why YT, why?)

[PlanckLimit]

Retarded? The only other 'clean' alternatives to powering vehicles are batteries, solar, and hydrogen which aren't much better at this time. PV Solar cells aren't efficient enough yet and vehicles would have to be radically re-designed for maximum PV cell efficiency; hydrogen requires too high an energy input to collect sufficient amounts via electrolysis or reforming, and batteries have power limitations and aren't very environmentally friendly once expended either. Steam isn't a bad idea.

[kingtorm2]

imagine getting into a crash in one of those cars, you steamed to death if the tank gets ruptured.

[DoctorPlausible]

I don't see what all the fuss is about. My neighbour has a car driven by Steam (very cheaply, in fact) and it works very well. She's never had occasion to complain, except of course on Tuesdays, which is his day off.

[Twist9]

Compressed air is much more practical, as it can sit over long periods of time without having to be recharged when the temperature drops, and has been proven effective over longer distances in India. In fact a steam boiler could be used to pressurize pneumatic pumps and still be almost as efficient.

[Salladsdressing]

Hydrogen economy or Methane economy is the way! Not steam!

[1337sirshamus]

WOO HOO more flammables and explosives on the road then the car manufacture can charge the fire departments 100 dollars for software showing the layout of their cars so the firefighters dont cut a fuel line when they are trying to rescue someone with the jaws of life...seriously if there is a method for powering cars with steam it is loads better than hydrogen

[turtalako]

steampunk baby!

[oriong8]

jeremy clarkson's next favourite car!

[chaz76vette]

They act like steam-powered cars haven't already been done. The first cars 100 years ago were steam-powered, and the most sophisticated ones were even more economical than this (they could go farther, faster, and they generated the steam on-board instead of cyphoning steam from stationary burners which is very energy-wasteful)

[Flyborg]

Umm.. so it still runs on fossil fuels, it just stores the steam and then uses it? What the heck's the point in that? It's just like a battery.. a gigantic, horrible battery.

[throatkickerr]

no one's gonna drive that. and shoot, what if everyone drove those cars in the city? pedestrians (the REAL green commuters) would be soaked, and it would rain every day... lamesauce.

[TubeOwner]

ugly

[fathead431]

lol, i live in montreux, i use the boat weekly!

[lvecsey]

By the way you could use a solar furnace to heat the water at home part of the way, and home electricity available for the rest. :)

[lvecsey]

Lots of these ideas depend on having roadways that are fed by energy from regional nuclear power plants, to minimize conversion losses. The ones nearby can charge up on steam, those further out get a quality electrical grid part of the road way.

[CelChan4]

For short trips, yeah.

[physphys]

does it make broccoli?

[amsoho75gr]

could make a cool steam-punk car that way

[adventurenox]

The garage would need to keep the boiler running all the time and that doesn't seem very economical. Also, how would the steam be generated? The steam is really serving as a battery for the energy, like with hydrogen cars. With that as the case I wonder if the compressed air car wouldn't be better. With that at least the station would only need the compressor to run occasionally. Neither seem promising compared to electric seeing how we already have the energy grid.

[PinkLilyBee]

Nice idea, just wish it could be improved to go faster and longer.

[scullyy]

"now all he has to do is convince the driver"

Ye, good luck with that...

[petfoodonly]

Every garage would need a boiler.

Worst

Idea

Ever

[tjmac7]

Roger Waller..(0:20)with that tache and sweater combo why am i not surprised you think steam is the future!?

[JohnDeBunkTest]

Canned Steam cannot produce the range or power needed for a practical car.

The idea of a true steam car might be possible, but the power of external combustion is low.

Future viability of the technology? Zero.

(Get a battery).

[spentfromnz]

Not gonna happen. Needs to refuel every 40 minutes and you have to use that "fuel" straight away or it cools down. Thats a terrible system. Probably takes a while to heat up the water and produce the steam each time you fill it. Either that or the filling station is on all the time (ie wasting energy). Plus you got to realise 10km/hr is really slow, most people can run that fast.

[Marcus91Swe]

electric car are more likely to replace gasoline then steam. The stats he gave aren't good. maybe the steam cars can be used at shipping yards or airports to transfer the worker quicker then bikes but I dont think it will work in the city and stuff. we need to be able to drive for a longer time.

[gromann]

BMW has already been working on a sort of steam-assisted engine, it isnt its main powersource, but instead sort of an extra torque boost, they want to use it instead of true hybrids

[Marcus91Swe]

that's pretty cool :)

[DoctorPlausible]

This could work for transportation inside closed road systems like factory complexes where people and small supplies are constantly shuttling between buildings and where steam is already produced for other uses.

[BF2mods]

if they start sellin these, theyll have to invent an anti-steam glass so the driver can see whats in front of him...

[BF2mods]

lol imagine what new york woud look like if everyone used steam cars xD woud look like a poluted city. but infact causing no polution... cool!

[franzyland]

They already nave this kind of performance. It's called a golf cart.

[LukaZGD]

that will not work.. just imagine thousand cars in city waiting for green light, the visibility will be zero ! just look at that steam !

and p.s. this is going back to the past.. i mean wtf! steam

[shockferret]

Nope. Refilling at "steam stations" will never be practical.

For a better idea do a YouTube search for "compressed air car".

[captcidd]

that is a very good idea needs some work, more speed and longer drive times but it could work

[pindassuff]

That's just daft

[williamlweaver]

NIMBY - Just because the energy is obtained at the "boiler station" and stored on board as steam, what makes the SYSTEM more efficient than internal combustion? As an aside, how many burn injuries will we have when the car drives past a school bus stop?

[Eastwood991]

I agree. I don't really see this being used.

Those stats he gave aren't very good: 40min with an average speed of 10.5km/h. That won't really get me anywhere.

There's still a lot of room for improvement.

[kurtilein3]

one star, because this is scientificially inaccurate.

steam is NOT a source of energy. the steam has to first be created, and this requires energy.

1 star. rate this down. this is just like those hydrogen car people that claim that their car is a perpetual motion device and that the hydrogen is created in violation of the second law of thermodynamics.

they should have mentioned that energy is required to produce that steam.

[IcyKitty]

that was going to be my point even before watching the video.

[casparwn]

I'm very disappointed by newscientist for uplaoding this, how dumb is this?

[Squagnut]

City rush-hour traffic often moves as slowly as that car does. It would be useless for any long trip, but not bad for local driving.

But I don't see it catching on. Still, it's good that people are having ideas like this.

[hamsterhill]

...yea thats not really a great option because it would just cool down as soon as you got too work or the shops... or anywhere else. so you would have to have one of those steam rechargy thingys EVEYWHERE. and if the infustruction isn't there for electric cars there is no way that it would ever be there for steam cars.

[GFl1ve]

Not gonna happen

[AdamK1lg4ll0n]

So why aren't we using steam cars now?

[Grymyrk]

Because they only go 10kph... LOL whats the point!?

[shpazshpaz]

I think that bicycles are ever faster than this thing. However, back in the steam engines era. there was a steam powered car that can reach fast speeds byound 50 mph.

[asumazilla]

Bicycles easily go 20 kph with only a small effort by the rider. Walking is probably like 6 kph anyway.