And where in the hell do they get the hydrogen?
That's easy.
Build a few more GW Nuclear plants and crack water with electricity. Ship H2 to refueling stations.
Should make all sortsa people happy!
:^)
PS
I don’t have a problem at all with the above solution, especially if it gets us off Middle East oil and endless wars there.
Fracking just as good for said goal.
BUT, I have a feeling the average Enviro might be soiling his pants at the thought of massive numbers of Nuke plants spewing electrons to make Hydrogen gas...but it makes me feel good to think about how it will pain them
Eventually, they may be able to produce it through solar power. If you build it near the ocean, you could scale up a production plant as large as you want.
Even if we get it from a barrel of oil, and I admit to being fanciful here and posting a hypothesis, it might be a more efficient use of oil to draw hydrogen from it and selling the hydrogen as fuel and using the by-products in other productive ways.
What? Aren’t unicorn farts composed of almost pure hydrogen?
RE: And where in the hell do they get the hydrogen?
According to this site:
http://www.fuelcells.org/base.cgim?template=hydrogen_basics
In nature, hydrogen is never found on its own; it is always combined into molecules with other elements, typically oxygen and carbon. Hydrogen can be extracted from virtually any hydrogen-containing compound, including both renewable and non-renewable resources.
Hydrogen gas is similar to natural gas in that it is lighter than air, so it rises and disperses quickly. Hydrogen is non-toxic and safe to breathe. Hydrogen is also odorless, colorless, and tasteless; since it cannot be odorized like natural gas, hydrogen detection and ventilation systems are employed. Like all fuels, hydrogen is flammable and must be handled properly.
In the U.S., hydrogen is transported safely through 700 miles of pipelines, and 70 million gallons of liquid hydrogen is transported annually by truck over U.S. highways without incident. Both indoor and outdoor hydrogen refueling stations are located in several dozen states and have safely dispensed compressed hydrogen for use in passenger vehicles, buses, trucks, forklifts, and other types of vehicles.
See also here for a more technical discussion:
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/thermo/electrol.html
Steam-reform Natural Gas. 95% of it is produced that way in the US.
http://energy.gov/eere/fuelcells/hydrogen-production-natural-gas-reforming
When you look at all the energy losses to make the hydrogen, along with the required equipment, it is laughable to call it zero emissions and way more expensive than gasoline if not subsidized by Tax Payers.
http://inside.mines.edu/~jjechura/EnergyTech/07_Hydrogen_from_SMR.pdf