Why the Hydrogen Economy Doesn't Matter

I've always thought focusing on hydrogen now is a bad idea. Go for diesels. Easier to implement, cheaper too.

Great research sardion.

Can you explain what EV is and why you recommend going that route, please?

By diesels I mean the whole family, with biodiesels making up the bulk of it. It's the cheaper way in terms of infrastructure as well as cost. Infrastructure because you don't really need any new facilities or engines -- the current ones can work as is without modifications. Cheap on the whole because modern diesel engines are much more fuel efficient that regular petrol engines. Plus they could also run on a mixture of 15% diesel and 85% ethanol.

Electric vehicles will probably become very common within cities, for commutes to work, sending kids to school and such. But I think for long trips across state lines, diesel engines will do most of the work. Purely electric vehicles wouldn't have the stamina.

However I do agree with you on the future not having a single "backbone" fuel source. But looking at it practically I'd say diesels will dominate, even if it isn't the backbone. Liquid fuel in the form of diesels are just that much easier to handle than a heavy fuel cell that needs to be recharged overnight.

A hybrid biodiesel-electric vehicle would be the best.

Great post ! Glad i'm here. Diesel will allways be around for trains and big rigs it's the $ per pound mile thing that makes sense there. Ethanol and diesel is a grand plan but no infrastructure at this point. Bio diesel in the warmer climates.


mikell

I agree.

The biggest (and maybe the only) thing keeping EV's from reaching the masses is are rather poor battery tech...There are some electric cars on the road today...like Tesla, which uses li-ion, which is the batteries that are now famous for exploding...thanks to sony.

I've read about big battery break-throughs...but nothing has hit the mainstream yet...when something does...people will choose an all electric ride...I wouldn't mind...except i really like the engine noise...electric would be whisper quiet...which is good in some cases, but its just not the same when you line up at the stop light.

The way I see it is :
So long as it's not gasoline, I'm happy.

As for the fact that converting hydrogen is wasteful, we already have answers to that. The data you have seems to be out of date.

But meh, I don't care if we use EV, Hydrogen, or Bio-Diesel, as I stated, so long as it's not gasoline.

hydrogen might only be usuable for airplane engines.

johnsky - Whats your gasoline hatin all about?

I just dont understand why all these companies are pushing ethanol, Bio, Hydrogen, etc. There doing all this R&D on something that seems to be a waste of time and money.

And the UN recently came out with a article stating that cows cause more damage to the earths environment then our cars. Which probably means that Gore will start eating soy burgers and make a movie on it and sell it to the public that we should all eat veggies.

Theres not really ANY proof that we are making the planet warm faster then it would without us being here. Hurricane Katrina is what brought it home for most people...but the only reason that was as big of a deal as it was, was because the levee failed and caused a lot of damage. and all these environmentalist nut jobs were all saying were doomed and what not, and that hurricanes wil continue to get more and more powerful...yada yada yada. The truth is that the 06 hurricane season was the weakest hurricane season in a decade.....I bet thats something you wont here Gore talk about.

No ones really sure of exactly how much oil we have left...but its still many decades worth, so I think we should just stick with it while we put all the ethanol & bio-fuels & hydrogen money into battery R&D.
I'm no tree hugger, but green is good. I think everyone would like to be self sustainable...meaning you power your car by having it charge at your house, using your solar panels and wind turbine...that future is still over a decade away...but its what we should be aiming for. People complain that "big oil" has control over gas prices, and they can set them to whatever they feel like....so ummmm, instead that want a future "big hydrogen"...which they will also think controls the hydrogen prices.


...thats my 2 cents.

the reason is they can replace all the infrastructure with the same pump system we currently have and can put a same kind of price tag as we currently do.

instead of us just plugging in our cars at home we are dependent on those other companies i bet the oil cartel will move into this field once they start loosing customers.

wait and see...

I'm actually interested in these renewable energy source because of that -- they are renewable and they are alternatives. I hate cartels as much as I hate monopolies and oligopolies. I want choice.