To: zx2dragon
Well that is impressive information, you seem to be more dialed into the topic than I am.
One of the big obstacles my engineer friend presents is the hydrogen. It is not realistic to use it in any massive form because it is so explosive.
While driving down a freeway he points to a semi and says imagine the two side fuel tanks are both full of hydrogen. There is no way to make it safe from an accident point of view.
So he tells me one of the biggest challenges is to manufacture the hydrogen "on the fly". That is in usable quantities at the site of the cell, but not in quantities that would be dangerous in the event of an accident. It is a huge challenge that consumes so much energy that the practicallity of a mobile fuel cell diminishes quickly.
This at least according to my engineer friend.
19 posted on
02/26/2003 7:14:52 PM PST by
Pylot
To: Pylot
I have been interested in renewable energy for a little while now. It is only recently that there has been impressive breakthroughs; mainly fuel cell, solar and wind.
Hydrogen is less volatile than gasoline. It requires a 4% mixture in the air before it will ignite. Gasoline requires only 1%.
Hydrogen spills will be no big deal as it will quickly dissipate as water. Also keep in mind that hydrogen is non toxic.
Now for delivery. There are some refueling stations that are looking into (or are using) solar power in order to create hydrogen. Other alternatives to hydrogen would be natural gas (like Honda's Civic GX coming out next year, all natural gas plus a hook up to refuel at home), propane, or biomass (methane). Hydrogen gives us the purer form, only extra left over is water. Even though the other gases would have detectable emmissions, they will be much lower than what we have coming out now.
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