ACSA Announces Support for the "Hydrogen Super Highway"

FuelCellWorks.com ^ | 01-June-2005 | ACSA

[Willie Green]

MagLev is cool... but this solar/hydrogen scheme is a pipedream. IMHO, we need to build more nukes.

[ProudVet77]

American Computer Scientists Association

A quote from an old Scientific America - CA 1980.
"Computer science is to science as plumbing is to hydrodynamics"
Before you blast away - I am one.

[Hemingway's Ghost]

MagLev is cool... but this solar/hydrogen scheme is a pipedream.

The article certainly reads as though the author hit the pipe before writing it. Too bad---

[ckilmer]

willie

this looks fun but it looks like the designer just assumed the solar cell array would produce the needed energy at great price points.

as far I know the energy out put by the panels the guy envisions don't have the energy output to drive the trains and what energy they do produce is still much more expensive than say coal..

[Willie Green]

I agree.

Although the advancements in solar and fuel cell technologies are impressive,
the fanatical hype is waaaaaaaay too optimistic, and only serves to divert attention away from more practical solutions.

[ckilmer]

that said sometime in the next couple of years there are going to be some immense break throughs in the cost of hydrogen production--and also the cost/effieciency of solar cells.

[ckilmer]

that said sometime in the next couple of years there are going to be some immense break throughs in the cost of hydrogen production--and also the cost/effieciency of solar cells.

[JAKraig]

They said they could generate 400KW per 5000 feet. Ok, since there are two conduits per direction and two sides per conduit that works out to about 20 watts per square foot of collector if the collector is 1 foot tall. At that rate they would have approximately 550 horse power per mile. Less than one half megawatt per mile does not sound like enough to run the system on. They are also talking about doubling the conduits per direction. If they do that they are talking about a substantial amount of power, nearly a megawatt per mile.

How long until we have a track 100 miles long?

Nuclear reactors the size that are used in submarines and aircraft carriers are as small as 100 megawatts.

[Lekker 1]

Why convert the solar energy to electricity, then to hydrogen (discarding the byproduct oxygen), then to the thermal cycle then to mechanical energy? Why not just convert the electricity directly to mechanical energy via electric motors on the vehicles?

[Willie Green]

Why not just convert the electricity directly to mechanical energy via electric motors on the vehicles?

That'd make it pretty difficult to drive at night or when it's overcast.

[Lekker 1]

True, but it is just as difficult to store hydrogen as it is to store electricity since it effuses so readily through it's container.

[kennyboy509]

You are one? One what!?

I'm a plumber too.

I plumb therfore I am.

Or dija mean a scientist?

[Old Professer]

[Doctor Stochastic]

American Computer Scientists Association

I would prefer it if the American Chemical Society or the Society of Automotive Engineers were involved.

[Born to Conserve]

So basically, some aliens come and install a whole bunch of solar panels for free, and then they string hydrogen piping and fiber optic cable, and also built the highway structure itself, all for free, then that is where the article comes in with it's accurate predictions.

You just have to know about that alien part.

[ProudVet77]

Computer geek. And I though I new everything till I finally went to college at age 35 to study physics/philosophy. Man that just blew away my software engineer's ego ;)

[ProudVet77]

These guys are really whacked out.
I really need to sit down and work through the calculations I did for my thesis in college about the amount of energy available from the sun when you consider cloudy/rainy/snowy days, not to mention dust and other particulate matter (bird poop) on the collectors. Then toss in winter/summer variances as well as sun angles during the day to collect maximum energy (need to be perpendicular to the sun to get max energy). And finally here in new england in the winter we might get 6 hours of usable sunlight on a good day.
Now to really make the enviros happy the most productive cells are made of gallium arsenide. Recognize the chemicals involved?
There are so many problems with solar energy, and yet here in enviro conscious MA, the politicians are blocking every wind farm project that comes up.

[al baby]

[gogogodzilla]

Not to mention that the article states that the hydrogen produced would be stored in the conduit/road.

And if the hydrogen is stored in the road, what happens if there is an accident? Hydrogen is extremely flammable. The last thing I want to see is hundreds of miles of roadway exploding in front of me.

[al baby]

knew?