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I would think that you would need to keep the hydrogen and oxygen in a stable state (water) until the "last minute.

Now this would be a challenge for the physics. Regardless of how you do it, if you're going to get energy out of recombining hydrogen and oxygen, you need to put in the energy to split them apart in the first place (and a bit more, since there are always losses). A plant catalyst gets the energy from sunlight. It may be more efficient than previous methods, but it still won't produce more energy than the incident sunlight provides. "There ain't no such thing as a free lunch."

So, converting then unconverting at the last minute seems like a pretty tough challenge.

However, all it not lost. I'm sure we'll be able to work out the storage/safety things, and so we can separate the hydrogen out ahead of time - preferably in clean, non-polluting nuclear power stations. Or perhaps we'll all grow solar panels on the roof of our cars, and they'll simmer away like teakettles during the day, busily using sunlight to convert water to hydrogen for the drive home. If we get the conversion efficiency high enough, you might get Yugo performance for about $40k per car.

I agree, the physics would be tough if even possible. Its the only way I would consider driving a hydrogen power car though. I simply would not be to excited about driving a potential bomb around. The problem of the physics may preclude any attempt at SAFE and efficient hydrogen powered cars. Like I said though, I have no objection to research in this area.

My personal opinion is that a real source of alternative power will be the derivative of the research we put into the "dry wells" of hydrogen, solar, wind, etc. Combine that research with the efforts in quantum physics, super conduction and "happy accidents", we will probably be close to another power source that will allow us to expand our technology.

BTW, none of this will happen if the government continues to regulate every aspect of life in this country. We will be stuck with current technology until the power sources required to run them dries up. Innovation requires freedom and freedom requires being left alone by regulators and government.