Wirt Atmar said, The second set of slides is a little more whimsical. They show a set of toys that produce their own hydrogen by electrolysis and combust it in fuel cells.
http://news.com.com/2300-11392_3-6177768-1.html That indeed may be the future. Hydrogen can be produced anywhere, by anyone, and one possible future may be that people will produce their own fuel locally, at their home, photovoltaically. Given that the only real "fuels" in this process are sunlight and water, such a process would seem to be the ultimate in a sustainable future with the absolute smallest environmental footprint. I certainly agree that automobile efficiency is a major ecological problem, and worthy of discussion here. Cycle efficiency of the cycle, electricity --> hydrogen --> electricity is about 35% Cycle efficiency of the cycle, electricity --> battery --> electricity is about 60% So, from the perspective of energy efficiency, a battery electric vehicle seems to be the best choice. However, from the perspective of global warming, recent research by Wang and others at ANL shows that biofuel powered vehicles have much lower CO2 emissions (well to wheels) than any other kind of transportation. I noticed with great appreciation a recent policy statement by the ESA in support of biofuels, entitled "Biofuels: More than just ethanol." (I assume almost everyone on this list received that email, if not it is short and could be posted here.) Future prospects for biofuels such as ethanol and biodiesel look very good. But, we are only at the very beginning of this new technology. Great improvements are needed if they are to fulfill their promise. Ernie Rogers ************************************** See what's free at http://www.aol.com.
