water 4 gas anyone look in to this.

[Mace Canute]

Have a read through this...I'm sure you'll see why H2 will never be a practical "fuel".

The New Atlantis ｻ The Hydrogen Hoax

 

[Brad_Blazer]

Some day we'll have to get away from heat engines in our vehicles since the 2nd law of thermodynamics restricts them to crappy efficiency. Second Law of Thermodynamics The caveat is, 25% isn't so bad considering the energy was captured and stored for millions of years for free and left in nice deposits for us to dig up.

The way for electric vehicles to work is for them to use a standard battery pack that gets changed out at the "gas station" just like they do with forklifts in a factory. It will probably happen first in the cities around the same time the taxi fleets become driverless. Once it becomes illegal to drive your own car on public highways we'll stop caring about having our own cars and there will be a huge degree of standardization and efficiency gains. Go-cart tracks will soar in popularity

 

[Iplayfarmer]

Go-cart tracks will soar in popularity

More people will want lawn tractors because it will be their only opportunity to operate any kind of machinery. We'll all become tractor hipsters because we were into it before it was cool.

 

[BobRip]

Have a read through this...I'm sure you'll see why H2 will never be a practical "fuel".

The New Atlantis ｻ The Hydrogen Hoax

Excellent article.

 

[greasemonkeyok]

The source of all energy is ultimately nuclear:

Oil and gas deposits from organisms grown a long time ago;
Hydro-electric (cycle in which the sun heats ocean water, rains fall, etc.);
Burning plant matter grown in sunlight;
Burning animal matter which ate (directly or indirectly) plant matter;
Atomic/Uranium reactors; and
Solar;

I may have missed some others.

 

[greasemonkeyok]

Double Post deleted????

 

[City Farmer]

Have a read through this...I'm sure you'll see why H2 will never be a practical "fuel".

The New Atlantis ｻ The Hydrogen Hoax

It's a good article but consider the source, he might be spot on about hydrogen not being a viable energy repacement, I don't know? Mr. Zubrin is very intelligent but IMO he's completely misguided. He thinks "The EPA is today the primary enemy of economic growth in the United States, and through it the world". Like I said before I have no idea what the fuel of the future will be but weather we like it or not, its going to get more expensive to drive because of refining consolidation throughout the last few administrations. Hopefully with all the billions there spending on R&D something good will come of it.

 

[crazyal]

Have a read through this...I'm sure you'll see why H2 will never be a practical "fuel".

The New Atlantis ｻ The Hydrogen Hoax

H2 will be nothing more than an alternate type of battery, one that is only practical for a limited number of situations. The sad fact is that most hydrogen doesn't come from water but from natural gas and the process emits CO2.

The best option is batteries and they are very limited as to how much we can expect to get out of them without making the price of the vehicle so expensive most could never afford it. They also have limited lifespans. Who could afford to spend $75k on a car that only lasts 5 years and then needs another $20k worth of batteries. We are stuck with fossil fuels for some time.

 

[crazyal]

It all boils down to source of energy. In example solar energy. Then you can produce hydrogen and oxygen in a electro hydrolyzer. All this can be done DIY. Storage of the hydrogen is much harder problem though. In example compression will eat another large chunk of energy. Then add low efficiency of combustion engine etc.
The better way is to develop efficient and durable battery, charge it by whatever energy you have available etc.
We just recently added 24kW PV system to our house. I still have room for about 32 panels on the racking so when the electric cars become cheaper and their range increases I will just add the capacity for charging the batteries.

Toyota just started selling an all electric version of the Rav-4. The charger for it is 10kW and will charge the battery in about 6 hours. You can get 100 miles out of a charge. Of course the price is about $50k before rebates and you'll need more than 32 solar panels to charge the battery in 6 hours.

 

[Redneck in training]

Toyota just started selling an all electric version of the Rav-4. The charger for it is 10kW and will charge the battery in about 6 hours. You can get 100 miles out of a charge. Of course the price is about $50k before rebates and you'll need more than 32 solar panels to charge the battery in 6 hours.

RAV-4 might need 60kWh but there are smaller cars that need less than half of it. Honda FIT has 20kWh battery. I don't know what the charging efficiency is but I think 32 panels (of today's technology) that produce about 30 kWh/day in our location will charge it daily. We also don't need to go to the city every day.