0

I'm designing a military force for my world, and I'm trying to build an electric tank, I have all of the other mechanisms, I just don't have a power source. I'm looking for a zero emissions electric power source. I already have a power storage mechanism drive train etc. What I'm looking for is not a battery, but rather some type of zero emission electric generator turbine or similar device.I would like a power source that at least if it cannot be zero emissions,at least don't make it have carbon emissions.

Efialtes
  • 3,226
  • 2
  • 19
  • 33
  • 1
    battery? I doubt that solar panels would be enough for a tank... – Kepotx Apr 20 '18 at 10:31
  • We have no zero emission engines except (arguably) nuclear power and a nuclear powered tank is not realistic with existing or foreseeable tech. – StephenG - Help Ukraine Apr 20 '18 at 10:59
  • Is this better? – Efialtes Apr 20 '18 at 14:04
  • No carbon emissions? A green tank? That seems to be taking political correctness a bit far. Avoiding heat emissions or any other detectable-at-a-distance emissions (carbon isn't one of them) makes sense. But, "we want to save the planet, just not those guys over there" seems a bit... oxymoronish. What is your goal for this tank? Why is this a requirement? – JBH Apr 20 '18 at 14:18
  • Cause of the lingering carbon traces left behind that can be detected by modern sensors.. And also because of the smell and nooise created by carbon emitting engines. – Efialtes Apr 20 '18 at 18:37
  • You say you have a power storage mechanism. I'm going to assume you mean energy storage. But then i have to ask what it is you want - a bottle full of gasoline is energy storage, as is a bottle of pressurized air, a bottle of hydrogen, a bottle of Uranium 235, ... If you havea battery, someone has to make electricity to fill it, if you have a bottle of gasoline, trees had to grow and decay, etc. it's all just energy, in one form or another. Please specify what kind of energy storage you already have in mind, and what you lack. – bukwyrm Apr 21 '18 at 19:31
  • I'm using graphene super capacitors. So it runs off of electricity. – Efialtes Apr 21 '18 at 22:29

1 Answers1

1

A zero emission condition limit a lot what can be done. A solution can be an array of batteries with some way to partially recharge them while moving (a dynamo and/or some kind of wind turbine) and a mechanism to recover energy when braking.

Maybe some deployable solar panels for when the condition allow them.

Gianluca
  • 2,025
  • 13
  • 19
  • 1
    The solar panels would be very useful for powering the iPhones of the crew and not much else... – AlexP Apr 20 '18 at 10:58
  • A Leopard used a 620 kW engine. In solar panels that would be a battlefield alone. – L.Dutch Apr 20 '18 at 11:31
  • A tank is not always fighting. If the condition allow it, you can sloooowly put some charge in the battery (and while fighting even 10 seconds more of power can means win or destruction). So, of course not while fighting, but while travelling or when at rest they can but used. – Gianluca Apr 20 '18 at 11:41
  • the 620 kW were not used for fighting. Just to move it. – L.Dutch Apr 20 '18 at 19:37
  • I know. But you don't use the panels to power the motors, but to recharge, very slowly and only in some conditions, the batteries. – Gianluca Apr 20 '18 at 20:14