Hydrogen powered Ford Explorer.
Posted on 01/30/2003 5:23:28 AM PST by SJackson
Edited on 04/22/2004 11:48:01 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
President Bush revved up his hydrogen roadster on Tuesday, calling for $1.2 billion in research funding for futuristic fuel cells that might one day power cars. In the process, he left taxpayers, and the cause of honest energy policy, in the dust.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
The WSJ needs to get the message: When JFK said we're gonna put a man on the moon, he meant it. When W says we're gonna push the timetable on this breakthrough, he means it. He's sick to death of dependency on ME nutjobs, unstable South American commies, and governors who sell their states down the river with bad power grid decisions.
The WSJ has also apparently not figured out that the gameplan is not drill or hydro....it's BOTH! Sheesh....
I truly hope Bush isn't that clueless.
There are two concepts here that no one engaged in this discussion seems to understand, and ends up using them interchangeably when they are not the same.
The first is energy production. That means you are getting more energy out than you are putting in.
The second is energy storage. It is physically impossible to get even the same amount out as was put in, and you need a source for the energy you are putting in.
Hydrogen is merely an energy storage mechanism. As such, it is very lossy. In other words, converting to a hydrogen-based transportation system would greatly increase the need for energy production.
Energy production is currently largely comprised of drilling for oil. It is energy production because you put a small amount of energy in (drilling the well) and get much more energy out.
Another form of energy production is nuclear fission. To really "go green" you would need to greatly expand nuclear power. In reality, the only way automobiles will ever be powered by anything other than fossil fuels is if nuclear power becomes ubiquitous. Nuclear waste will have to be processed (currently illegal). All the doom-and-gloomers will then run around proclaiming the end of the world due to nuclear power production.
Most likely, Bush is simply playing on the ignorance of the mushy middle. They like the idea of a hydrogen economy because they don't have a clue what it means. Consider this research a down payment on a sound bit for the next election.
Actually, it takes MORE energy to produce the hydrogen than is produced in burning it. All energy transfers are inefficient, and some energy is lost in the process. How many BTU's are necessary in the electricity plants that produce the power to generate the hydrogen? How many less BTU's are produced in burning the hydrogen? And how much less energy actually goes to the wheels of the cars?
If hydrogen was free (or relatively inexpensive) and available, we'd all be driving hydrogen cars now. There is no doubt about their non-poluting qualities in operation. But because of the massive electricity requirements, the only feasible way to get a net polution gain is if nuclear power -- not coal -- is used to generate the electricity.
These are the sort of basic questions which "environmentalists" gloss right over. They must be satisfactorily answered before hydrogen cars can be anything other than an occasional experimental presence on American highways.
Congressman Billybob
Click for latest column for UPI, "Historians against History (HAH!)" (Not yet on UPI wire, or FR.)
As the politician formerly known as Al Gore has said, my book, "to Restore Trust in America"
We are building and testing hydrogen cars here at Tech for Ford. Virginia Tech's Hybrid Electric Vehicle Team demonstrated one of the first U.S. passenger cars powered by a fuel cell this summer at the 1999 FutureCar Challenge. The fuel cell, often described as a battery with a fuel tank, uses hydrogen to produce electricity and helped the team win the award for lowest emissions.
I posted nothing on AIDS topic yesterday, so I don't know what you're talking about.
But I can understand why you might not want to see decisions today that will put the U.S. in a better position tomorrow.
The WSJ has also apparently not figured out that the gameplan is not drill or hydro....it's BOTH! Sheesh....
The President's Hyrdogen Car initiative is the political, economic and energy policy equivalent of hitting a triple in baseball.
1) Bush is robbing liberals and Greens of their "killing the earth" issue. Also, It quiets the debate that we are going to war with Iraq over oil. All that comes out of a hydrogen car is distilled water vapor.
2) Bush is creating a completely new branch of the US economy. Hydrogen cars need research done, H2 fuel produced, H2 gas stations, and other infrastructure in order to exist. All of this creates new opportunities for new businesses and these new businesses create new JOBS.
3) Bush is re-arranging our energy policy to be locally self-sufficent for fuel. Theoretically, any hydrocarbon can be chemically stripped to produce elemental hydrogen. That includes coal and natrual gas. The challenge is finding the catalyst to make it efficent and cost-effective. Only twelve people walked on the face of the moon however, the entire population of the world will benefit from the President's Hydrogen Car research.
jriemer
What Bush is proposing in other words is a revolution in energy production and a massive change in society, approaching that of the introduction of electricity. The unspoken part of this plan is nuclear power -- lots of it, as in "why bother drilling for oil?" amounts.
To make this "hydrogen economy" happen, the cost of producing electricity has to drop enough to make the costs and inefficiencies of fuel cells and hydrogen production a wash.
If Bush is sincere about pulling this off, it is breathtaking. The clue as to whether this is real or a political smoke job will be in whether they start building nuke plants like cell phone towers.
Another revolution in society in terms of saving energy would be to make it so we don't have to drive so far to work, or even to make it so we could work from home. The suburb-workplace distance seems to be growing greater and greater, and I say working from home would be a fine solution. That way I could post to FR from home instead of from my office, and I could just hit ALT-TAB when the boss dropped by on the old videophone or even better, the holophone...
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