Posted on 10/12/2013 5:29:56 PM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
In what may be California's last chance to build a "hydrogen highway," lined with thousands of high-tech vehicles emitting nothing but water vapor from their tailpipes, Gov. Jerry Brown has approved a plan to construct 100 hydrogen fueling stations across the state by 2024.
Only a year ago, the California Air Resources Board required Big Oil to pay for the new stations. But after oil companies threatened to sue, Brown agreed to a compromise in which the costs of building hydrogen stations will be shifted to car owners through existing vehicle registration fees.
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
It was Schwarzenegger who first put the "hydrogen highway" on the public agenda in California.
Dear BIG OIL,
Why in the hell do you continue to allow these people to BULLY YOU?? Stop taking CREDIT of any kind, and watch them change their tune overnight.
Big oil is their hate speech for companies providing goods and services in the private sector that people want to pay for. However, if we don’t want to pay for said goods, no government Marxist pig is going to force us to. It is called freedom to choose.
Clearly, there is no free energy. It takes energy to generate diatomic hydrogen.
California, lol.
Governor Moon Beam is simply stupid. The energy derived from burning hydrogen is clean, but it is not practical because of the low energy density of the fuel.
This is know by all engineering experts. Only ComDem Idiots think this will really work. It is like their blind faith in GloBull Warming.
Water vapor is the number one greenhouse gas. Hydrogen leaks damage the ozone layer. There's also that Hindenburg problem.
The shuttle used Monomethylhydrazine and Nitrogen Tetroxide as fuel. The hydrazine is stable at the temps it would be used in a car, not always so on the rocket engines. The problem the shuttle had was with the oxidizer. Breath the fumes of the combustion and you get nitric acid in your lungs. Not good. That is why they blew air from big fans across the shuttle before the crew exited the craft.
“the costs of building hydrogen stations will be shifted to car owners through existing vehicle registration fees”
We’ll just make those dumb ba$74&ds pay for it. Up yours Jerry Brown.
California seems like an awesome place to live! ... pre 1966.
this tells you what the market is for this idea, right now.
There aren't many hydrogen cars on the road, but I don't know of any that store the hydrogen in liquid form. It's too hard to compress, too hard to keep cold, and too dangerous to store in that form. It's easier and safer to store it at room temp at high pressure.
That simplifies the storage and transfer of fuel, but there are still problems. To get equivalent range from a tankful of H, the tank has to be 4X bigger and at high pressure - 200 psi or more, IIRC. Fuel lines will be at the same high pressure, in your car and at the pump. You will never be allowed to pump your own H like you pump gas, too dangerous. You probably won't be allowed to work on your own car either.
Hydrogen fuel cells are hot right now, but they're outrageously expensive and even more dangerous if they go wrong (Apollo XIII).
Hydrogen power is so elegant - H combines with oxygen, yielding energy and pure H2O. No pollution, and you can reuse the H by extracting it from the water. The problem is storage and safety, and I don't think they have the answers yet.
My point was fuel density is a major issue for hydrogen fueled autos.
Imagine the pressure issues involved and the size of the fuel tanks required.
I think LNG is a lot more practical than Hydrogen fuel systems. Both have issue with fuel storage and the danger associated with it in a crash situation.
We used propane pickup trucks here for many years, but it was a bit tougher in autos. No one wants to wind up as a blow torch.
You can make hydrogen from water and electricity or nat gas reformation
In the long term hydrogen is the answer and every car shokd use the excess wasted electricity from the alternator to supplement gas and make it burn better but the car companies refuse to allow it
They want a continued monopoly and for sure don’t people to run their house and cars on the sun and water
While I agree with everything you said; you left out some other alternatives for storage. These alternatives include metal hydrides and carbon absorption, neither of which requires high pressures. Both of those alternatives (and others too) have their own problems; so there are no economic solutions for use in vehicles yet.
Honda is testing 200 cars called the FCX Clarity in SoCal that are leased to the drivers. They can go about 240 miles on a tank of H2 (81 mpg).
Fifth Gear Web TV - Honda FCX Clarity Road Test
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaniEb3yAhM
First Drive: 2009 Honda FCX Clarity
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-6B9jYQFm8
I just hope the eco-nuts just don’t find out that water vapor is about 94% of the greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere.
I would like the idea of running my house on fuel cell tech. NASA has been doing it for years and hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe.
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