R.C.Macaulay wrote:
Howdy Vorts,
With the acceleration of research worldwide, is this telling us that
hydrogen is being given serious consideration as a replacement fuel
for gasoline and diesel?
Claims are rampant that the gas can be generated by electric power at
a fraction of the input vs output energy. It is true that an electric
motor can pump crude oil at a fraction of the input/output energy...
but.. crude oil production via electric motoer driven pumps is not
considered OU.
Right.
AFAIK nobody's demonstrated more energy out than energy in splitting
water. (It would be major news if they did, needless to say --
perpetual motion of the first time.) Lots of processes split at greater
than 100% of the "coulomb efficiency" but that just means there's some
pyrolytic splitting going on; it doesn't have anything to do with the
overall energy balance.
If the hydrogen comes from electrolysis, then a hydrogen-powered car is
just another way to build an electric car. Whether the vehicle uses a
fuel cell or an internal combustion engine -- or an external combustion
engine, for that matter (i.e., a steam turbine) -- it's all the
basically the same thing: we've replaced wires, a battery, and an
electric motor with electrolysis, tank trucks, onboard hydrogen storage,
and a hydrogen engine. Whether it's "clean" or not depends entirely on
how "clean" the original electricity generation plant was.
As far as I know methods for storing large amounts of hydrogen within
the vehicle remain somewhat speculative which means the whole hydrogen
thing may never actually materialize. At this stage, I think it's fair
to say plug-in hybrids are already here, and practical pure electric
cars can be made with nothing but engineering effort. Hydrogen powered
cars, on the other hand, require at least one significant piece of
research to be completed, maybe more (practical storage, and either an
effective affordable hydrogen fuel cell or a long-wearing ICE that can
eat pure hydrogen without eventually falling apart as a result).
Personally I remain unconvinced that there's more to the hydrogen
powered car than somebody's vision of a way to make money, and some
politician's idea of a good campaign speech.
If hydrogen can be produced in a like manner it begs the question..is
there any work being done in engine design specifically for the use of
hydrogen or more far out.. Brown's gas ? Something on the order of a
closed cycle combo ICE turbine ?
Richard
