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Was: Moss/Lichen on roof, now we are into pollution.
"Bob Hobden" wrote in message ... "Nick wrote in message after me . . The laws on vehicle pollution continue to get tougher and tougher and the manufacturers have had to comply to continue to sell vehicles. There has been massive strides in reducing pollution from cars, per mile travelled. Catalytic Converters, Electronic Engine Control, lean burn engines, two stage ignition, direct petrol injection, particle traps etc with more to come. We are significantly reducing overall pollution figures despite a massive increase in vehicles, now all we need to do is get rid of all those old polluting buses. I suggest that you take the effort to find out the facts behind the government and motor lobby propaganda. That is completely untrue. No it's not! everything I've written above is true. Ignoring the data, if you simply look at the petrol consumption of ,say, a 1600cc car 30 years ago ( about 26mpg) and compare it with a modern engine ( about 40+mpg) you will find significant improvements in efficiency which also does relate to the pollution produced, even without catalists in the exhaust system. The fact that these modern cars also have much more inside them consuming power proves my point further. . 2) Catalytic converters virtually eliminate carbon monoxide, but increase the amount of nitrogen oxides. Worse, they work only after the engine has warmed up (about 5 miles) and the average trip in the UK is about 3 miles. Also, they don't work at all well when the engine is idling (see (1). The reason that they "reduce pollution" is the the government is very careful to measure only what they do reduce. I will give you that an INCIDENTAL effect has been the removal of lead and sulphur but, as someone with breathing problems, I can witness that pollution for a given amount of traffic is getting worse. Probably due to the significant rise in the use of Diesel engines (in cars) which produce lots of small particules (soot) which get into our lungs and clog them up. Particle Traps are on their way to cure this problem, I think it's one of the French manufacturers that is already installing them. I too have developed Asthma in the last 10 years. 3) The various regulations have the effect of increasing the weight of vehicles, discouraging more economical two-wheeled transport (both motorcycles and bicycles, ridden on the road). I believe that it would now be cheaper for me to get a HGV licence than a motorcycle one, and I am a very "low risk" person. And cycling is now finished, as a form of medium-distance commuting (3-10 miles), and that is DIRECTLY due to the changes in regulations and attitudes of the "powers that be." Other people have pointed out the errors in your "pollution-free" car theory. All it does is move the pollution from the suburbs to the power station, though I agree that doing so COULD be used to reduce pollution. I know of no plans that any government has, and definitely not the UK, to do so. Nobody has pointed out a flaw at all, to me they just show they don't know about Fuel Cells, their possibilities, uses and how fast the technology is advancing so there is little chance of agreement on this topic. I have been reading about the immense progress being made in fuel cell technology for more than twenty years now. Why are they not yet in daily use in every household? Oh, and with power stations also going over to the use of Fuel Cells pollution from them will reduce too. :-) I have read a report one experimental fuel cell unit installed in Holland, where it was mentioned that "At the point of shutdown, the unit was also sustaining a power generating efficiency of more than 46 percent, well above a conventional combustion-based power plant that typically generates electricity at efficiencies of 33 to 35 percent". That does not sit well with whoever it was who recently said something about conventional power stations operating at 60%. Franz |
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