Replies

Yeah, I always feel dumb on that point, but it seems obvious.

Petroleum is in the ground. It's waiting to be "harvested", sure we have to refine it but it's there for us to grab. Hydrogen isn't like that. There are no hydrogen mines. You really have to extract hydrogen from something.

So, what's the "something" -- it seems like the "something" is a resource that must be harvested, so I'm not sure that's progress.
And then you have "extract" the hydrogen, and what is that process? I suspect it's more got an energy cost which is higher than refining petroleum, so I'm not sure we're making progress.
And then there's the problem with storage and transport. I suspect that's more costly than gasoline tanks and tanker trucks, so I'm not sure we're making progress.

Why do I believe that the *REAL* challenge is not STORING hydrogen, but rather PRODUCING it with less energy expendature than the energy it delivers.

Actually, it is both. Having said that, the problem of storage is the more vexing of the two. There are solar panels that can extract hydrogen from water directly, which solves your problem, sort of. Not perfect, but it goes that direction.

My thoughts are the storage aspect. Hydrogen storage has to have low loss and relatively safe handling in order to provide an acceptable fuel. While I think that diamond anvils are not practical, this will certainly give those researcher a good starting point.

Why do I believe that the *REAL* challenge is not STORING hydrogen, but rather PRODUCING it with less energy expendature than the energy it delivers.

Hydrogen in this use is all about making energy portable, not making it in the first place. The important thing is that you're left with something that can power a car around with sufficient power and range.

The idea of a hydrogen fuel cell car is amazing. The fuel cells can produce enough electricity to power a high-performance car with perfect quiet and only water vapor as the emissions. The only technical problem is the high-pressure hydrogen tanks you'd be hauling around. With something like this, you can have such a car just running off a couple of unpressured thermos bottles in the back.

Then we can generate our electricity through hydroelectric, coal, nuclear, solar, wind and domestic natural gas, bottle it up for cars, and tell the Arabs to go screw themselves on the majority of oil we import. Terrorist funding would take a major hit.

This is a Good Thing^TM.