Popular Mechanics takes Ford?s Hydrogen-Powered, Plug-In Hybrid for a test drive
- Thread starter Queasy
- Start date
silverpig
Lifer
- Jul 29, 2001
- 27,703
- 12
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What is then?
I'd say it's a combination of hydrogen and electric. GM has a car out now that's primarily electric and runs on batteries. You plug it in at home and it charges up. It's got something like a 100 mi range. It also has a small gas engine and a full gas tank so it can charge it's own batteries when they get low, thereby increasing the range to what a regular car might get.
I think this will be how we'll drive in the future. Once fusion becomes a reality we'll all be powering our cars electrically with small fuel cells as back up fuel sources.
There's probably a reason why there's barely any hydrogen in the atmosphere, even though it's supposedly the most common element in the universe, IIRC.
Brainonska511
Lifer
- Dec 10, 2005
- 28,042
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It also has a ridiculously low density compared to the atmosphere, so it tends to go off into space as well when in the gaseous phase.
Pulled from the Wiki on Hydrogen:
My guess is the future will be electric cars once fusion comes online. Hydrogen, gas/hybrid, biodiesel are all a bandaid at best. Where do we get the hydrogen? You have to use electric to get the hydrogen from the water, or get it from fosil fuels. Hybrids? Still use fosil fuels to some extent, though if fusion ever becomes reality this may be more of an option as we'll have endless power to get hydrogen. Biodiesel? Sounds nice, but if any real percentage of the population went to this, it would probably take more energy then it's worth in growing corn, etc. Then it has to be harvested, converted, etc.
Unbound hydrogen comes not from burning but from leaks refueling and tank ruptures.
http://pr.caltech.edu/media/Press_Releases/PR12405.html
According to conventional wisdom, hydrogen-fueled cars are environmentally friendly because they emit only water vapor -- a naturally abundant atmospheric gas. But leakage of the hydrogen gas that can fuel such cars could cause problems for the upper atmosphere, new research shows.
In an article appearing this week in the journal Science, researchers from the California Institute of Technology report that the leaked hydrogen gas that would inevitably result from a hydrogen economy, if it accumulates, could indirectly cause as much as a 10-percent decrease in atmospheric ozone. The researchers are physics research scientist Tracey Tromp, Assistant Professor of Geochemistry John Eiler, planetary science professor Yuk Yung, planetary science research scientist Run-Lie Shia, and Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientist Mark Allen.
If hydrogen were to replace fossil fuel entirely, the researchers estimate that 60 to 120 trillion grams of hydrogen would be released each year into the atmosphere, assuming a 10-to-20-percent loss rate due to leakage. This is four to eight times as much hydrogen as is currently released into the atmosphere by human activity, and would result in doubling or tripling of inputs to the atmosphere from all sources, natural or human.
http://pr.caltech.edu/media/Press_Releases/PR12405.html
According to conventional wisdom, hydrogen-fueled cars are environmentally friendly because they emit only water vapor -- a naturally abundant atmospheric gas. But leakage of the hydrogen gas that can fuel such cars could cause problems for the upper atmosphere, new research shows.
In an article appearing this week in the journal Science, researchers from the California Institute of Technology report that the leaked hydrogen gas that would inevitably result from a hydrogen economy, if it accumulates, could indirectly cause as much as a 10-percent decrease in atmospheric ozone. The researchers are physics research scientist Tracey Tromp, Assistant Professor of Geochemistry John Eiler, planetary science professor Yuk Yung, planetary science research scientist Run-Lie Shia, and Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientist Mark Allen.
If hydrogen were to replace fossil fuel entirely, the researchers estimate that 60 to 120 trillion grams of hydrogen would be released each year into the atmosphere, assuming a 10-to-20-percent loss rate due to leakage. This is four to eight times as much hydrogen as is currently released into the atmosphere by human activity, and would result in doubling or tripling of inputs to the atmosphere from all sources, natural or human.
Zenmervolt
Elite member
- Oct 22, 2000
- 24,514
- 41
- 91
What a shock. California found an environmental problem with something. :roll:
I'm seriously waiting for the day that California decrees that newborn babies have their foreheads tattooed with "This carbon-based life form contains chemicals known to the state of California to cause cancer."
ZV
flashbacck
Golden Member
- Aug 3, 2001
- 1,921
- 0
- 76
hmm. I wonder how reinforced that tank of compressed hydrogen is. What's going to happen when people get into a high speed accident with explosive pressurized gas in their cars and everyone around them has the same pressurized gas under their butts?
Again its says it MAY have a potential effect and the prudent course of action is to research BEFORE we jump whole hog on hydrogen and find out we'd have to ban it like CFC's.
Not that hydrogen isn't worth exploring or may very well be the answer, but we do have the capacity to look before we leap for a change.
Might be able to store hydrogen as a solid instead
Not that hydrogen isn't worth exploring or may very well be the answer, but we do have the capacity to look before we leap for a change.
Might be able to store hydrogen as a solid instead
At a funeral on Friday where two of my cousins who are large farmers were talking about hydrogen for their heavy equipment and if you used say a windmill to generate electricity to produce the hydrogen right on the farm for their use they would find that very usefull and cheap.
They also went on a big rant about Nitrogen prices but I'm sure few would find fertalizer pricing interesting
They also went on a big rant about Nitrogen prices but I'm sure few would find fertalizer pricing interesting
Let me know when they actually start producing it. Meanwhile Toyota is actually selling hybrid vehicles.
And how much does this hydrogen fueled car cost?
All that extra hydrogen would just float up into the upper atmosphere, where it would slowly collect over many years. Then, one day, a rocket would pass through this and ignite the whole thing, burning our planet to cinders.
edited for spelling.
edited for spelling.
Vic
Elite Member
- Jun 12, 2001
- 50,422
- 14,337
- 136
Toyota's hybrids are scams, sheep. Even CR says so. You'd get as good of real world gas mileage and have a lower overall impact on the environment by buying a true economy car, and then the rest of us wouldn't have to deal with your smug emissions.
Specop 007
Diamond Member
- Jan 31, 2005
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dullard
Elite Member
- May 21, 2001
- 25,932
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Hydrogen and electric power don't do a thing to solve our problems. Those two things just move the problem from the millions of cars to localized hydrogen and electric plants. Instead of our cars burning tons of fossil fuels, our those plants will be burning tons of fossil fuels for us. Moving the problem doesn't solve it. It may make it easier to keep the consumption as minimally pollutant free as possible, but it doesn't solve our eventual lack of unrenewable fossil fuels.
Hydrogen and electricity aren't sources of energy, they are energy transporters.
Now there is a solution. A new source of energy.
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