Outside of an ever-shrinking cadre of naysayers, the biggest roadblock to renewables is our outdated infrastructure. Scientists call this interconnectedness “path dependence,” which in a nutshell argues that if we wanna get anything done, we must take into account the problems of climate change within a larger contenxt, whether that’s political or economic.
But a group of scientists at Purdue University have a simple fix to the issue of refueling cars that will make it easy to retrofit gas stations.
Instead of pulling up to the gas station and pumping petrol into the tank, you’d pump battery-charging electrolytes into your car. The electrolytes would be stored in the former gas tanks beneath the station along with the spent electrolytes from your vehicle.
They’re calling their company IFBattery. Headed by John Cushman, the group presented its findings to the International Society for Porous Media 9th International Conference in the Netherlands.
Of course, this is all to say assuming you’re even refilling your tank. Stanford University economist Tony Seba thinks that by 2021 we’ll have moved to driverless cars and full electric, and that gas cars will be a thing for collectors (think Minority Report).
Either way, it might be a good time to start rethinking your transportation and energy portfolio.
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