Time's up for petrol cars, says GM chief

[Zkribbler]

Here's a car that runs on air.

[Spec]

Hydrogen FTW.

Spec.

[The Mad Viking]

Originally posted by Kidicious
Did you get that info from the coal industry?

South Africa produced all their gas and diesel from coal during the embargo. This was due to necessity, of course. I suspect it was well more than double the cost of refining from oil, and that we will never know exactly. However, it is absolutely possible.

The sky will not fall. Fuel costs will continue to rise as growth in consumption continues to outstrip new discoveries of crude oil. In the meantime, extraction and refining costs will also increase as less favourable reserves go on line. Increased costs will help to enforce conservation, as well as making alternative energies far more economical, both in relative and absolute terms. It is already clear that investment in alternative energies, which for decades was low and decried by environmentalists, is now much higher; the problem is largely looking after itself by economic law.

[dannubis]

Originally posted by Spec
Hydrogen FTW.

Spec.

And where would all that H2 come from ?

[Proteus_MST]

Originally posted by dannubis


And where would all that H2 come from ?

Hydrogen is the most abundant Element in the universe.
It is contained in practically all molecules and you can even extract it out of water with a simple electrochemical experimental setup that even a schoolkid could reproduce.

I doubt you will have problems to get all the hydrogen you will ever need (at a much lower cost than hydrocarboneous fuels)

[dannubis]

1) the point is, you need energy to get the H2 in the form you needn it. And given the fact that most energy is generated by burning fossil fuels...

2) the energy density by unit volume of H2 is much lower than that of hydro carbons. you would need a big gas tank (containing a highly explosive gas) to get the same autonomy as with the classical fuels.

[Julian Delphiki]

Hydrogen is a storage, not a source.

[Dinner]

The ideal hydrogen source seems to be using nuclear power to run hydraulosis and then burning the hydrogen. The major down side is hydrogen gas is still explosive in contact with O2.

[Provost Harrison]

Yeah, hydrogen as a fuel source works very well if you are using something like nuclear or a renewable source of energy. If you're burning petrochemicals to produce the electricity to hydrolyse the water to generate the hydrogen, then that is woefully inefficient and you'd be better off putting petrol/diesel straight into the car...

[Perfection]

Yeah, but petrochemicals are aren't a big supplier of electricity in most nations.

[Spec]

http://www.fuelcells.org/info/charts...ngstations.pdf. All hydrogen stations that started opening since 2000.

Mazda is making a hydrogen rotary engine for 2010. That'll pwn any car if you consider power/displacement. 285hp for 1.3l, no pollution and still the nice sound of a detonation engine with a 6 speed manual tranny.



Spec

[DanS]

I don't know why we would listen to Wagoner. Have any of his pronouncements been correct except by pure chance?

[snoopy369]

Hydrogen is easily mined in space... Let's get those trawlers out there...

[Chemical Ollie]

Don't make hydrogen cars, remember what happened to Hindenburg! Helium cars is the way. Morans!

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Perfection
Yeah, but petrochemicals are aren't a big supplier of electricity in most nations.

Care to guess again? World energy production by source:



BTW that 1% renewable power sources includes burning garbage which isn't really so renewable.

Trends into the future: