Comments on: Hydrogen cars = more gas consumption???

By: Marco Kuis

Marco Kuis — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 19:53:11 +0000

It is important that note that the two mentioned means of producing hydrogen are some of the least feasible solutions available. Much other technologies can be used to produce hydrogen, for which the means are readily available.

For instance, there’s thermal water splicing, which comes down to using heat sources for splicing H2O into H2 and half an oxygen molecule. With solar contractors (which use the same principle as an antenna dish) sunlight is converted into the heat used for water splicing. A durable source of hydrogen.

Via several chemical reactions, biological matter can also be broken down and hydrogen can be derived from it. Also a durable source of hydrogen.

Winning hydrogen from coal and gas might be the easiest solution as of yet, but certainly not the only ones and certainly not the cleanest ones. It’s not feasible to use hydrogen when those methods are used for obtaining hydrogen, but it could be if other methods are used.

By: It’s Rishi » Hydrogen pipe dreams

It’s Rishi » Hydrogen pipe dreams — Tue, 30 May 2006 10:30:04 +0000

[...] A few months back I posted about how hydrogen fuel cell cars actually are significantly less fuel-efficient than current gasoline-powered cars due to the fact that producing hydrogen fuel is itself a horribly inefficient process given the present methods. Ed Ring, editor of EcoWorld, recently published an article titled “The Hydrogen Hoax” explaining his belief that hydrogen research should take a back seat to further development and implementation of technologies which are commercially viable today: clean diesel cars, serial hybrid cars, and battery powered cars. Will scientists figure out someday how to store hydrogen in practical, economical ways? Will they ever figure out how to build cheap, safe and durable fuel cells? The answer to these questions is yes, but probably not before they figure out how to develop ultra-capacitors or cheap batteries with extremely high energy densities. [...]

By: Maxwell

Maxwell — Mon, 12 Dec 2005 02:58:29 +0000

…a very revealing article with solid evidence. I am concerned with the feasibility of fuel cell at this stage too.

However, one must also evaluate the solution as a whole. For example, fuel cell has significantly less moving parts and emission control components as conventional engines, meaning less oil changes and less parts manufactured. Both of these will reduce the monetary and environmental cost of the fuel cell technology.

In addition, because fuel cell doesn’t generate as much heat as conventional engines, you can run them with much less cooling components.

All these contribute to less weight on the car, and as we all know, less weight equals higher fuel efficiency.

The list goes on, but must end here now because I have to read Rishi’s other blog entries : )