Posted on 06/14/2013 4:04:42 AM PDT by Olog-hai
The Energy Department has $9 million more taxpayer dollars to spend on projects that may make a very expensive car less expensive and more acceptable to consumers.
The latest round of funding is intended to accelerate the development of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, backup power systems, and hydrogen refueling stations. …
Ironically, the Energy Department credits cheaper fossil fuel with reducing the cost of producing hydrogen fuel cells: “Recent development of the United States’ tremendous shale gas resources has not only helped directly cut electricity and transportation costs for consumers and businesses, but is also helping to reduce the costs of producing hydrogen and operating hydrogen fuel cells,” the Energy Department said.
Hydrogen vehicles emit only heat and water as byproducts. But it takes energy to produce hydrogen, and if that energy does not come from renewable sources, then fuel-cell cars are not as green as they seem, Business Insider reported in May. …
(Excerpt) Read more at cnsnews.com ...
The cost of the car is bad enough But..
The Nomex wardrobe is gonna cost a small fortune.
Hydrogen vehicles emit only heat and water as byproducts. But it takes energy to produce hydrogen, and if that energy does not come from renewable sources, then fuel-cell cars are not as green as they seem, Business Insider reported in May. -
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Hydrogen is nearly always made by steam reforming Natural Gas. This takes energy and produces a fuel with less energy per volume than the original natural gas.
Why not focus on natural gas cars?
Beside powering reciprocating engines it does a pretty good job of turning water into steam. How about bringing back the Stanley Steamer, and steam locomotives, seriously.
Actually, before we outsourced our plastics industry and much of agriculture to other countries we produced about two thirds of the hydrogen needed as a waste product.
Free hydrogen is one of the most common chemical byproducts out there.
It is storing it that is the problem. in liquid form you need a tank the size of your trunk to give you a 270 - 350 mile range. Americans have kind of gotten used to cargo space.
I haven't seen that when reviewing the Process & Instrumentation Diagrams in past projects.
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