OVERVIEW Through its Alliance Partners, Armor has created a diverse and highly competent capability for bringing together technologies, engineers, manufacturers, and distributors with a mandate to develop, deliver and market advanced products into the emerging market of electrically propelled products. Through these various relationships Armor has been able to establish, through specific retail market needs, the ability to deliver prototype products that meet or exceed these specific needs, engage manufacturers to mass produce them and gain the interest of established retailers and distributors who have expressed the desire to place initial orders for the products. Simply put, Armor has all of the pieces in place to launch a line of advanced electrically propelled vehicles and recreational products into established markets calling for these specific products. In other words, while not pre-sold, these products have been specifically developed to satisfy the needs expressed by the market. The team Armor has assembled includes established professionals in each of their respective fields who have come together through Armor to bring their specific capability to bear in order to successfully deliver these products to market. Demands of today force this badly needed migration away from fossil fuels and toward environmentally clean and renewable electrical energy. Efficiency of Vehicle Propulsion Systems Clearly electric engines are the most efficient method of propulsion, however portability constraints of the electrical energy in order to begin historically has made use of electric motors impractical for use in propulsion systems. Therefore new technologies are competing to bring to market a safe, cost-effective method to utilize electric motors for propulsion systems. One method is to attempt to generate electricity on-board the vehicle using fuel cells, which might improve the efficiency of cars today. Another emerging technology is the development of high-capacity, fast charging battery systems using either a hybrid combination of lead-acid and lithium batteries or lithium batteries alone. These systems, if perfected, would represent a significant breakthrough in propulsion systems technology. They would deliver on the promise of technology in that the result would be a high performance, cost effective, and environmentally friendly propulsion system that uses renewable energy as its source. Remember that pollution reduction is one of the primary goals for development of propulsion systems that don't require fossil fuels. Fuel-Cell-Powered Electric Car If the fuel cell is powered with pure hydrogen, it has the potential to be up to 80-percent efficient. That is, it converts 80 percent of the energy content of the hydrogen into electrical energy, but hydrogen is difficult to store in a car. When we add a reformer to convert gasoline, methanol, or natural gas to hydrogen, the overall efficiency drops to about 30 to 40 percent. Additionally the reformer operates at temperatures up to 1400 degrees Fahrenheit raising other safety issues, including explosion of the fuels due to impact from collision. We still need to convert the electrical energy into mechanical work. The electric motor and inverter accomplish this. A reasonable number for the efficiency of the motor/inverter is about 80 percent. So we have 30 to 40-percent efficiency at converting fuel to electricity, and 80-percent efficiency converting electricity to mechanical power. That gives an overall efficiency of about 24 to 32 percent. Gasoline-Powered Car The efficiency of a gasoline-powered car is surprisingly low. All of the heat that comes out as exhaust or goes into the radiator is wasted energy. The engine also uses a lot of energy turning the various pumps, fans and generators that keep it going. So the overall efficiency of an automotive gas engine is about 20 percent. That is, only about 20 percent of the thermal-energy content of the gasoline is converted into mechanical work. Battery-Powered Electric Car This type of
car has the highest efficiency, which is why the hybrids and fuel
cell vehicles convert fuels to energy used by electric motors.
The battery is about 90-percent efficient (most batteries generate
some heat), and the electric motor/inverter is about 80-percent
efficient. This gives an overall efficiency of about 72 percent. So, if we look at the whole cycle, the efficiency of an electric car is 72 percent for the car, 40 percent for the power plant and 90 percent for charging the car. That gives an overall efficiency of 26 percent, (if fossil fuels generated the electricity in the first place). However, the overall efficiency varies considerably depending on what sort of power plant is used. If a hydroelectric plant generates the electricity for the car for instance, then it is basically free (we didn't burn any fossil fuel to generate it), and the efficiency of the electric car is about 65 percent. SUMMARY This document points out the importance of considering the whole system, not just the car. We could even go a step further and ask what is the efficiency of producing gasoline, methanol or Natural Gas? While it is widely acknowledged and accepted that combustion engines, which burn fossil fuels, are inefficient and produce harmful gases, to date they have been the most cost effective and efficient propulsion systems available. Only recently has there been a demand to move away from fossil fuels and only then within parameters of cost effectiveness and performance standards established by fossil fuel burning vehicles. Therefore low or zero emission vehicles, to be accepted by consumers, must perform at least on a par with fossil fuel vehicles in the areas of price point, and performance, as well as cost and time to refuel/recharge. Efficiency is not the only consideration. Consumers will not drive a car just because it is the most efficient if it makes them change their behavior. They are concerned about many other issues as well. They want to know: " Is the
car quick and easy to refuel? This list, of course, goes on and on. In the end, the technology that dominates will be a compromise between efficiency and practicality. Armor believes it has access to that technology and, in addition, efficient, low cost, exceptional technology to eventually produce the required electrical charge 'on board'. With this new system the Armor electric powered vehicles will be able to compete in performance, distance and speed with all current fossil fuel burning vehicles but will be operating environment friendly and at much less cost to travel the same distance.
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