Here is an often overlooked but surprising point regarding hydrogen as
fuel. Actually two linked points.
1) As long as we must burn fossil fuel, or even biofuel to meet our
transportation needs, then there will always be a significant advantage
to burning some hydrogen at the same time. There is no better catalyst
to use to accomplish a complete burn of hydrocarbons than a small amount
of free hydrogen - and this is especially true of diesel combustion.
2) At the same time there is no reason to manufacture hydrogen in a
separate operation or to store it in the automodible. The best approach
is to carry water, and then to either reform the H2O with the fuel (i.e.
variations of the Pantone approach) or to split the H2O using the best
thermo-electro-chemical process.
In this way we can reduce the amount of biofuel which needs to be burned
considerably - by up to half - by using H2 - but not as the prime fuel,
instead as a combustion catalyst.
The bottom line would be that if one needed an auto engine capable of 40
kWhr in order to achieve acceptable performance on the highway, lets say
it is a small engine which burns biodiesel (especially algoil) -- then
the an output of 42-44 kWhr would be provided, along with a larger
alternator, so that 2-4 kWhr of electric energy could be parasitically
employed. This electric input is used along with heat and chemistry, to
split water (steam) which has been preheated by the exhaust. Ideally
some CO2 is reintroduced into the steam at this point.
The H2, O2 and intermediary chemicals produced in situ by the
thermo-electro-chemical process are then immediately reburned and never
need to be stored.
The flame speed and mobility of hydrogen at the start of combustion is
such that a complete burn is assured in a fraction of the time which is
required for heavy oils. There is also synergy, which has become fairly
well-documented by the mounting evidence. Much of that evidence was
mentioned in the "Pantone threads" a while back on vortex, but there is
a video and other information on this site, which is useful.
http://peswiki.com/index.php/Video:Water_as_Fuel_(via_ZPE)
Jones
