All very good, but it still doesn’t change the fact that in both fuel cells and hydrogen ICE’s, the result is H2O at the tailpipe, and given that water vapor is responsible for about 70% of all greenhouse effects, it will still come as a proctological inconvenience to the AGW hysterics.
The exact type of hydrogen combustion aside, there still remains the fact that hydrogen is not a viable fuel, because there exists no source of free H2 in nature. We have to manufacture H2 from something else, which (if we’re not using reformers and liberating H2 from CH4), require copious amounts of energy. Therefore, in the environmentalist nirvana, H2 becomes a lossy energy transfer mechanism, not a fuel.
H2 powered cars are the most recent incarnation of the same idea that spawned the battery-powered “zero emissions cars” of the 90’s: a hugely expensive and futile distraction.
Good points all. I see Hydrogen as the high end replacement for gasoline. It can be made from water, using electricity. One scenario would be self-contained wind-to-hydrogen convresion ‘farms’, where the Hydrogen is picked up by tank trucks.
This neatly addresses two of winds current problems: it tends to be producing electricity at times of low demand (night) and it tends to be located far from where the juice is needed, or often even where transmission is available.
It’s not a panacea, but it has potential to be the best alternative fuel in terms of performance and convenience. Historically these critera win out in the market.