Hydrogen has it’s own set of problems It requires a lot of energy to produce it. It’s a bomb waiting to go off.
I did. But I found it was taking forever on the canal boat to get to Dunstable. In the end I just stuck with my van.
Aircraft carrier catapults are steam powered. Its why we saved money on the Queen Elizaneth so we had to buy ripoff F-35s to fly from it. No steam available. Proper aircraft carriers have nuclear reactors.. megawatts of steam available for catapults. Or electricity .
Some very good points have been made already. Because I've also been thinking about electric for our project (as it probably won't need the "powerplant" fitting for a few years, when electric cost should have come down a fair bit) I've just read a report that basically blows it out of the water for me ..... I don't have it handy but the figures are near enough: This report looked at three different areas which I've probably got slightly off here, but basically: Cradle to grave factors in IC Vs Electric 1) Cost of ownership 2) Global warming/ local pollution 3) Human/environmental toxic factor Electric has to be owned for more than three years to draw even with IC Electric is about 20% less polluting than IC In 2015 Electric was THREE times more toxic to humans and the environment than IC By 2025 (I think) that is set to go UP to FIVE times as toxic. This is all based on the appalling Lithium Iron cycle of un-regulatable mining practices and "un-economic" recycling ... or rather lack of it beyond the likes of Musk and Nissan having schemes to move their 20% depleted capacity batteries into the "retirement" home of domestic storage. If the battery technology evolves (graphene might come through for example) then this might all change dramatically, but I suspect the fuel cell will hit the tape first (?)
I like also that in Australia because of Big Coal, the electricity used to charge an EV is apparently dirtier than straight burning petrol. Before taking account of lithium processing pollution.
The future is nuclear fusion powered carbon capture and water recombination plants .. making carbon neutral hydrocarbon fuels.. We already have efficient infrastructure for fuel distribution. Just feed in from a greener source. Stop dicking around with electric cars, get on with proper green mass transit and home working like we were always promised. As I said before once the UK doesnt have a car industry sucking subsidies we can make better environmental choices.
Like LPG? Depends if we're actually being green as a primary motive rather than making money out of drivers... cells aren't particularly nice to the enviroment being made or being disposed of, and if we want to actually meet the targets we're signed up to on these things we simply don't have the time to scrap all the IC cars and get them replaced by fuel cells, and also going forward they are more recyclable than a fuel cell. TWENTY years ago.... TWENTY... BMW started doing this... It requires the electrolysis of water.... which can be done anywhere there is either sunlight or wind and some water.... the beauty of hydrogen is it can be produced on site at the point of sale which also vastly reduces the amount of energy in the chain as there is no delivery mileage. Like LPG? or are you still living on the myths around the Hindenberg? If you want something to go off like a bomb wait until the batteries in electric cars start getting old enough to fail (about 3 years on the earliest Teslas) The main factor in all tis is the centralised fuel production, whether it's electricity or a fluid. For actual green-ness that doeons't add up at all.
Sorry still not convinced depending on who you ask it takes around 40kwh to produce 1L of hydrogen that’s a lot of solar panels
Fuel cells get poisoned and are inefficient. It makes sense on a space mission because using hydrogen and oxygen gives you many things. Thruster fuel: burn direct in a big engine ( small thrusters use other chemistry) Electricity : combine in a fuel cell . Byproduct drinking water. Fill up space suit air tank with oxygen for breathing and cooling (Apollo used 50% for breathing 50% for cooling by expansion into vacuum) . So you save on the variety of different kinds of chemicals you need to take. Hydrogen burning is intense but because it rises without being heated at ground level, the fire goes up. The tanks have to be very heavy to take the pressure: as a result like automotive lpg tanks they are indestructible. A friend of mine was stationary and tailended by somebody doing 70. The lpg cylinder stopped his car shortening once the engine of the car behind hit the cylinder. He walked away. On the Hindenburg what was burning that killed was fabric, dope and aluminium. The burning hydrogen would have been almost invisible burning above the flames you see in the film. Lithium packs leak dense inflammable electrolyte and burning battery cells if the battery containment is breached . More like petrol with a few live rounds of incendiary ammunition thrown in. Best way to contain is to bury burning vehicle ...
I think we will see more and more ethanol added to petrol. Maybe as high as E85 which contains 85% Ethanol and 15% pure petrol. Ethanol is a renewable fuel where petrol is refined from crude oil which is not renewable and will run out. Ethanol fuel produces CO2 when burnt, just like petrol, but the upside of Ethanol is its produced from plants which take up CO2 in the air and give out Oxygen. Old classic vehicles would suffer as the % of Ethanol goes up as it absorbs water and corrodes rubber and seals and would wreck carbs, engines and steel fuel tanks.
I'm lucky enough to know a man called Graeme who works providing consultancy in the alternative energies industry - honestly hydrogen infrastructure is closer than you think. The only hurdle left the last time I asked him was adapting the LPG filler nozzle to make it gas tight or hydrogen when used by the muppet general public
Very bad idea due to capitalism. Currently where cheap staple foods like grain are turned into fuel, often "poor" places, the value of the grain went up and now people can't afford to eat
I can’t see how this can’t work? Got to be the greenest way? Would be funny to hear the guys down the pub “yeah, I’ve got a 1 HP motor!”
