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Sun 10 Aug, 2003 05:57 am
After Robert Goddard was busy launching his model liquid fueled rockets in the 30's. I believe it was a group of prominent scientists, some from MIT , thatbsaid Rocket powered vehicles may be available for trips to the moon in a hundred years or more.
All it takes is a "little incentive" to knock these expert predictions into a bucket of spit.
Some information about how Europe views this are to be found on this website:
International Trade Fair for Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies / Oct 9 - 11, 2003
From The Telegraph:
Quote:
British hydrogen car unveiled
By Susannah Osborne
(Filed: 05/08/2003)
A car powered by hydrogen that was unveiled yesterday could spell the end for the conventional car, its backers claimed.
The British-built car runs solely on hydrogen and the only waste product it produces is water. It is almost silent and is being heralded as an environmentally sound alternative to petrol-driven vehicles.
BOC, a British-based company which backed the prototype, named the BOC Gh2ost, said the car was "in effect a prototype for all cars of the future".
John Carolin, the company's global director, said: "By 2020 many of the world's drivers could be taking to the road in cars fuelled by hydrogen."
The BOC Gho2st car runs on hydrogen fuel cells, which were invented in 1839 by Sir William Grove.
The process of generating electricity through fuel cells is similar to using a battery, but where a battery relies on an internal chemical fuel supply, the fuel cell can be fed continuously by an external energy storage tank.
Petrol vehicle emissions are a major contributor to rising levels of greenhouse gases. Hydrogen is odourless and tasteless and is one of the most abundant elements in the universe.
The Department for Transport welcomed the development of hydrogen-powered vehicles. A spokesman said: "We are currently investing in this type of technology."
The Department is introducing three buses powered by hydrogen fuel cells to London in a pilot scheme later this year.
On Saturday, the BOC Gh2ost car will attempt to break the mile per gallon record at the Shell Eco-Marathon at the Grampian Transport Museum in Alford, which currently stands at 10,705-miles per gallon.
Breaking the record could be a slow business though. The BOC Gh2ost has a maximum speed of 15mph.
Claudia Woon will attempt to break the efficient fuel record
Walter,
BOC, a British-based company involved in hydrogen cars, does not seem a disinterested party to this issue. The MIT study does seem to have more credibility. In spite of farmeran's bucket of spit, notice the temperate tone of the MIT study calling for the continued development of hyrogen while improving existing alternative modes.
MIT: "Ignoring the emissions and energy use involved in making and delivering the fuel and manufacturing the vehicle gives a misleading impression," said Weiss.
.........However, the researchers do not recommend stopping work on the hydrogen fuel cell. "If auto systems with significantly lower greenhouse gas emissions are required in, say, 30 to 50 years, hydrogen is the only major fuel option identified to date," said Heywood. The hydrogen must, of course, be produced without making greenhouse gas emissions, hence from a non-carbon source such as solar energy or from conventional fuels while sequestering the carbon emissions."
The single most important problem with hydrogen fuel is that it is made with electricity. We circle back to coal, oil, nuclear, wind etc. as forms of fuel to make hydrogen fuel. We are back to zero. I wonder if "hydrogen fuel" is an oxymoron. If it takes a conventional fuel to make a pollution free fuel, where is the gain? Cleaner cities and dirtier county side?
Sounds a bit lke modern alchemy to me: A method of transmutation, seemingly miraculous change of one thing into another.
Yeah, any real gain would have to lie in the value of storing energy, not creating it.
One of the problems with alternate forms of energy, such as wind or solar, is storage. People do not always want to use electricity when the wind is blowing or the sun is shining. If we use the electricity generated from wind or the sun, and use it to split water into oxygen and hydrogen, then the hydrogen could be used whenever people want a clean fuel to burn.
I don't recall ever seeing the economics of this, but I imagine they'd be pretty poor, today.
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