Sulfur Hexafluoride: Clean Power Generation’s Dirty Little Secret?

Often used in science shows to lower the pitch of the human voice, is sulfur hexafluoride the clean power industry’s “dirty little secret” because it is a more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide?

By: Ringo Bones

Ever seen those science shows on TV – now mostly on You Tube – where the presenter uses a gas called sulfur hexafluoride to lower the pitch of their voices like the opposite of what helium does? Well, unfortunately, sulfur hexafluoride unbeknown to many of us, is a very dangerous greenhouse gas – as in it possesses 23,500 times the atmospheric warming power of carbon dioxide and could exacerbate the effects of global warming. Atmospheric scientists had found out that concentrations of sulfur hexafluoride in our atmosphere had been increasing during the past five years. But given it is a very potent greenhouse gas, why is sulfur hexafluoride relatively widely available that science show presenters can casually use it in a demonstration to lower the pitch of their voices?

Due to the recent rush to wean our reliance on fossil fuels in industrial electrical power generation – namely wind turbines, sulfur hexafluoride is a necessity when it comes as fire suppressant in large-scale electrical distribution systems – i.e. high capacity circuit breakers and relays. Given that the alternatives are more damaging to the ozone layer – like the chlorofluorocarbon based Halon –or prohibitively expensive when use in the scale we currently use – i.e. the inert gas argon, it seems that the electrical power industry must now find ways to minimize the leaking of large amounts of sulfur hexafluoride into the atmosphere. Worst still, like most petrochemical derived plastics, sulfur hexafluoride doesn’t break down easily in nature.

Given that the electrical power industry now has notice on the potential problems posed by unnecessary leaking into the atmosphere of sulfur hexafluoride, the due diligence doesn’t solely fall on them. Back in the 1990s, sulfur hexafluoride was used to fill the cushioning bubbles of running shoes and who knows what other consumer products, making a renewed regulation of sulfur hexafluoride throughout the various industries somewhat of an uphill battle. Maybe science show presenters must now find other more earth-friendly alternative gas to be used in demonstrations to lower the pitch of their voices. Maybe the argon gas production industry could pitch in?

Converting Gasoline Powered Classic Cars Into Electric Cars: The “Greenest” Move Ever?

It reduces carbon dioxide generation and minimizes the environmental impact of end-of-life disposal, does converting your classic car to an electric car the “greenest” upgrade you can make ever?

By: Ringo Bones

Back when Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth was still doing its run in the movie theaters, critics of the so-called electric car were very busy stating the fact that even though they don’t emit carbon dioxide during their commute, they do have the same carbon footprint as a gasoline or diesel powered car during their initial production. But what about converting a much-loved gasoline or petrol powered classic car to one that runs on electricity? Would it be the most environmentally move one can make ever? I mean it avoids the eventual disposal of a classic car to some scrap heap and also turns it into a driving machine that produces virtually zero carbon dioxide during its commute.

Matthew Quitter of London Electric Cars recently got press attention after one of the classic cars that he successfully converted to run on rechargeable batteries - a 1953 Morris Minor Series 2 – was admired not only for its beauty, but also of its true-blue “green credentials”. In his Vauxhall based company, Matthew Quitter had managed to convert various quintessentially British classic car models to run on rechargeable batteries, from classic Minis to Land Rovers.  

On average, it takes 3-months of shop work to convert the average petrol-powered car to one that runs on rechargeable batteries. And even the modifications made by Quitter’s London Electric Cars can easily reverted back to petrol I bet nobody would ever go back given the advantages one gains in the conversion. Zero carbon dioxide emissions aside, a classic car converted to run on rechargeable batteries and dedicated electric motor produces on average three times as much torque than its original petrol-powered engine version. And when it comes to running costs, such modified cars are currently exempt from London’s congestion tax, making them the ideal city car. Given such benefits, I wonder if Quitter’s London Electric Cars already has clients who want their Lancia Stratos, Alfa Romeo Carabo and other classic supercars converted to run on rechargeable batteries.

World’s Longest Electric Car Trip: Coming of Age For The Electric Car?

With an adventurous Dutchman’s 60,000-mile journey recent completion in Sydney, Australia, has the coming of age for the electric car finally arrived?

By: Ringo Bones

Dutchman Wiebe Wakker’s amazing feat of traveling 60,000 miles (95,000-kilometers) via electric car reminds me of those automotive pioneers during the early part of the 20^th Century who drove early production models of the Model T and similar early gasoline powered vehicles in trips that stretched thousands of miles to prove that the automobile is a reliable form of transportation. With the advent of climate change and “peak oil”, Wiebe Wakker doing his part in a bid to prove the viability of electric vehicles in tackling climate change, his name will undoubtedly be now associated with the early automobile pioneers.

The tree-year trip was done on a modified Volkswagen Golf that Wakker nicknamed “The Blue Bandit” across 33 countries in what he said was the longest-ever journey by electric car. But Wakker’s three-year electric car “odyssey” is also, so-far, the longest documented electric car trip. The three-year trip from the Netherlands to Australia was funded by public donations from around the world, including the electricity needed to charge the Blue Bandit as well as food and a place to sleep. Wakker drove across a variety of countries and climatic conditions that included Turkey, Iran, India, Myanmar, Malaysia and Indonesia with the route determined by the prior offers he received on his website before the trip began.

Wiebe Wakker’s choice to opt for a modified Volkswagen Golf makes a lot of engineering sense because even in its original gasoline-powered form, the VW Golf is known for its excellent power-to-weight ratio and in its unmodified form was often known to beat 1970s and 1980s era Corvette supercars in a quarter-mile drag race when driven by a driver of sufficient drag-racing skills. According to Wakker, if the VW Golf remained unmodified, it would have consumed 6,785 liters or 1,800 US gallons of gasoline to complete the epic three-year journey.

Wakker’s modified VW Golf can travel 200 kilometers on a single charge, with Wakker saying that he spent just 300 US dollars on electricity, much of it in the remote desert Outback of Australia. Wakker’s raison d’être of his epic trip was to change people’s opinions and inspire people to start driving electric by showing the advantages of sustainable mobility. Wakker also said that “if one man can drive to the other side of the world in an electric car, then EVs (electric vehicles) should definitely be viable for daily use.”