Hope Project - car

Car platform We have chosen to start with a Honda Insight and modify it.  This project is more interested in the energy production methods than the car itself.  The Honda insight has the lowest air drag, lowest rolling friction, and lowest mass of any production vehicle. See specifications below.  It also has an integrated gasoline electric motor.  This will save a lot of work.  We will be altering the internal combustion engine so that it can run on hydrogen gas. The electrical charging system will be feed by both the solar components and the electrolytic plasma heat to electrical systems.   The roof and hood areas will be used for solar voltaic cells.  We should not need a lot of solar for this run.  Just enough to keep the batteries topped off for the fusion circuits.  The majority of the power will be coming from either the Hydrogen chemical or hydrogen plasma reactions. The Honda system has an integrated charging system that allows for regenerative braking and charging during downhill and lowing maneuvers. We will remove the gasoline systems and replacing the lines and storage with the hydrogen gas units.  The volume normally used for gasoline will be replaced with water storage for the hydrogen production.  We may also replace some of the battery storage volume and weight with a lighter smaller battery system and some super capacitors.   See the separate discussion on how the hydrogen will be generated from recycled and ground up aluminum by burning them in water.  This hydrogen will be the fuel for the internal combustion engine and gives only water vapor as exhaust.   See the separate discussion on how the plasma system will be used to generate heat and converted with a Stirling engine (a kind of external combustion engine) to electrical power and possibly additional hydrogen. The Honda Insight gets about 60 or more miles per gallon at 60 mph (flat). That means it burns about 60 to 70 ml of gasoline per min as such speeds or uses about 800 KCals / min. That means it burns about 0.6 moles of octane per minute or 11 moles of H2 per minute of energy equivalents. To generate that much Hydrogen by “burning” aluminum would take about 54 ml of Aluminum per minute.  We expect to supply aluminum as power from solar refined recycled cans that have been alloyed (some Zn, etc) especially to react in our system to give hydrogen.  We will be using the hydrogen to augment the plasma fusion system that will be using a Stirling system to recover the heat generated by the fusion process.  We are sure that the Hydrogen system will supply enough to endure the race but we are really hoping that the fusion system will supply a portion of our required power.  We expect to supply 1 to 5 % or more of the energy via the fusion route, about 1 to 5 % via solar, and make up any short comings by burning hydrogen. Honda Insight specifications. Capacities and Dimensions GeneralBody Style HBKEPA Classification 2SEATER Cruising Range (mi) 667.8 bore 2.83 stroke 3.21 compression ratio10.8 number of cylinders 3 Bore X Stroke 2.83x3.21 Tire Type P Tire Width165 Tire Aspect Ratio 65 Tire Construction RTire Wheel Diameter 14 Doors  2 Battery Output 10 Weight Distribution MT (Front) 59Weight Distribution MT (Rear) 41 Interior - Passengers seating capacity 2 headroom front (in)38.8 hip room front (in)48.7 leg room front (in)42.9 shoulder room front (in)50.5 Seating (Maximum)2 Interior - Cargo  CarryingTrunk Volume (cu ft)16.3 Exterioroverall length (in)155.1 overall width (in)66.7 overall height (in)53.3 wheelbase (in)94.5curb weight (lbs)1850 Crash Test Rating (# stars, 1=worst, 5=best) 4 SuspensionRear suspension type 1 SemiFront suspension type line 2 IndTread Width (in), Front56.5Rear52.2 Min Ground Clearance (in)3.9 Drive TrainType of Engine1.0L I3 Displacement 61 Fuel System MPFISAE Net Horsepower 67SAE Net Torque (lb ft)66 Number of Forward Gears 5 Final Drive Axle Ratio (:1)3.21 Capacity, Approx (gal)10.6 EPA highway (mpg)66 EPA city (mpg)60 SteeringR&PValves12 Gas Guzzler Tax 0 Power To Weight Ratio27.9 ElecHorsePower BHP73 ElecHorsePower RPM5700 ElecTorque FtLBs79 ElecTorque RPM1500 Combined Fuel Economy63 Turning RadiusCurb to Curb31.4