Would not biologically produced alcohol do well at this?
Bio-alcohol is an ecologically closed system. Plants “collect” co2 from the atmosphere, it’s fermented into alcohol, and conventional engines burn it — like gasoline, but cleaner.
I would think the sheer weight of all the things needed for hydrogen fuel cells would be too heavy for efficient or long-range performance.
—Or, is ONLY 100% PERFECT ZERO CARBON emission the (politically correct) goal here? Is very LOW carbon emission not good enough?
Perfection is the enemy of practicality.
Alcohol is a hydrocarbon that has a lower energy density than gasoline.
“Would not biologically produced alcohol do well at this?”
Very good point. Hydrogen has never worked economically as a fuel for just this reason.
If you want an entirely renewable fuel growing it will always be cheaper than electricity.
Perfection is the enemy of practicality.
Absolutely.
“biologically produced alcohol”
Anything that depends on sunlight (e.g., growing algae) will inherently have an extremely low energy density (energy produced per unit area per unit time). You cannot change how much sunshine hits the earth. All you can change is the area of the system and the duration of the process. The enormous land requirements and processing time for these bio systems means they will never meet any serious fraction of the nation’s energy needs.
It’s the same problem with solar cells and windmills (wind, after all, is a product of the uneven heating of the earth by the same sun).