Hydrogen: The clear alternative ( Why Most Oil Export Arab Countries are Doomed in 10 Years )

Pittsburgh Tribune Review ^ | 10/09/2006 | Ralph R. Reiland

[SirLinksalot]

Hydrogen: The clear alternative

By Ralph R. Reiland Monday, October 9, 2006

The good news out of Munich is that BMW has come up with something that could do a better job than the CIA in defunding al-Qaida.

The BMW Hydrogen 7, available next year in a limited series of a few hundred cars in the United States and other countries, runs on either gasoline or liquefied hydrogen.

"Running in the hydrogen mode, the BMW Hydrogen 7 essentially emits nothing but odorless vapor," reports The Auto Channel. "And unlike fossil fuels and traditional gasoline, hydrogen is available in virtually infinite supply."

A BMW engineer took off his glasses for the press and held them a few inches from the car's exhaust pipe. "See, I can even clean my lenses," he said, wiping the warm steam off with a felt cloth.

The aim, says BMW, is to "create a sustainable future for individual mobility independent of fossil fuels" by way of a technology that "does not in any way mean giving up the dynamics and performance typical of BMW." The Hydrogen 7, with a top speed limited electronically at 143 miles per hour, accelerates from 0-62 mph in 9.5 seconds.

SNIP

Equally predictable is the negative impact on the economies of the Islamic Middle East.

"According to a World Bank estimate, the total exports of the Arab world other than fossil fuels amount to less than those of Finland, a country of five million inhabitants," writes Bernard Lewis in his book, "What Went Wrong: The Clash Between Islam and Modernity in the Middle East."

[soccer_maniac]

[babygene]

""Running in the hydrogen mode, the BMW Hydrogen 7 essentially emits nothing but odorless vapor," reports The Auto Channel. "And unlike fossil fuels and traditional gasoline, hydrogen is available in virtually infinite supply.""


What a bunch of crap...

[KoRn]

Sounds good to me! Big corn will also hate this lol.

[SirLinksalot]

What a bunch of crap...

We'd be interested also in the WHY of this statement.

[FreedomPoster]

Yeah, I'll be drilling me one O' them hydrogen wells soon.

Whaddaya mean, there aren't any hydrogen wells?

[thackney]

Your "10 year" adder to the title is laughable when the article doesn't talk about the economics of hydrogen. For all the cost of a petroleum-based transportation system, it is cheaper than anything else of comparable power and quantity.

[RandallFlagg]

Bookmarking for later.

[Danae]

Its the future! Thank goodness! When they are available, I am buying one, time to stick it to the Middle East!

[jalisco555]

Doesn't it require a lot of energy to make hydrogen? Maybe coal fired plants can do the job but count me as skeptical.

[babygene]

"What a bunch of crap..." continued;

You have to use an energy source to produce the hydrogen.

[FreedomPoster]

I think you and I see this the same, or at least similarly.

[Wacka]

What they don't say is that using current technology, making hydrogen produces more pollution than burning an energy equivalent of gasoline.

[martin_fierro]

I have an inexhaustable supply of methane.

[TexasTransplant]

We better start building Nuke Plants last year if we plan on having enough of them on-line in 10 years

TT

[babygene]

"
We'd be interested also in the WHY of this statement."

see post #11

[ozoneliar]

What they don't say is that using current technology, making hydrogen produces more pollution than burning an energy equivalent of gasoline.

Not if the Hydrogen is extracted using Nuclear Power, or Wind/Solar.

[Anti-Bubba182]

I agree with that! Hydrogen is hard to come by. It would work fine IF the hydrogen could be easily obtained. Right now the main source used to make hydrogen is natural gas which is in high demand for home heating and other uses.

Unless they have a cheap and efficient way to get hydrogen this is not going anywhere.

[SirLinksalot]

Your "10 year" adder to the title is laughable when the article doesn't talk about the economics of hydrogen.

I was refering to this statement in the article :

Two days after BMW's Hydrogen 7 announcement, General Motors said its hydrogen fuel cell-powered cars should be on the roads as early as 2011. "This is to re-establish our technological credentials with the American public and the American media," said GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz, speaking at the Camp Pendleton military base as the company delivered a hydrogen concept car that will be test-driven by Marines.

[Uriah_lost]

How much energy does it take to get that Hydrogen? Where will that energy come from? Hydrogen is not something that can be pumped out of the ground. If we want to start building a bunch of nuclear powered hydrogen generation plants, it might work.....not gonna hold my breath waiting for it though.