Mike9825

hey guys, check out this website i came across. they deal in energy saving tips, homemade fuel projects, hydrogen power, solar power etc... looks like they got some good stuff -Mike-

http://www.knowledgepublications.com/

glennjanie

Yep, it looks like they are right on for the subject of today. I still doubt the economy of hydrogen but it may very well be the fuel of the future.
Glenn

Mike9825

well not to get off topic, but today i recieved there Hydrogen DVD in the mail. I was watching some of it and it proves exactly that you can run an IC engine on hydro and other fuels.

Now as far as fuel cells go, yea there aways off from getting on into a car. It's like when the first computers came out in 50's and 60's they took up a whole wall, now we have the luxury of using them right in our home on top of a simple desk. -Mike-

Kerrylib

Hydrogen sounds good in theory. When you start to investigate it a bit, you uncover the problems with it that the media and govt somehow don't bring out all that often.

The biggest issue is the specific energy associated w/ H2. Yes you can burn H2 in an IC engine, or a turbine, or a water heater, your bbq, space shuttle, etc. The energy density of gasoline is about 9.7kWh/l, where Hydrogen is around 2.6 kWh/l (liquified H2) for compressed H2 gas is even less 0.75kWh/l. (numbers I just got doing a quick web search)

So on rough estimates, assume you have a truck with a 25 gallon gas tank. To have the same "range" on a tank of Hydrogen, you'll need approximately a 100 gallon liquid H2 tank.

Think about what 100 gallons of liquified H2 might do if that tank were in a wreck on the highway.

I'm not trying to discount the importance of this research and definately recognize that we need to be shifting away from fossil fuels much more quickly than we are, but I doubt that any of us here will see hydrogen as a truly effective replacement fuel. There are lots of other alternative fuels to be explored.

Rustedbird

Fuel cells need a catalyst and a friend of mine pointed out that it was platinum, which there is not near enough if all cars were to be fuel cell. I remember that someone came up with a matrix that can go into a hydrogen fuel tank just in case someone does wreck with one. Can't remember how expensive it was.

Diesel is what will be most common. The Germans during WW2 were cracking coal into oil, synthetic fuels. At one time, they were exceeding what they used to import. So, guess which nation holds the bulk of the world's coal reserves? The US of A.

Cars will have to be true hybrids, capable of running off of fuel, or storing energy from the grid, or converting it from solar or using an inboard generator. We are not going to run out of gasoline per se, as it will be more a function of economics, i.e., really expensive.

Enough about cars, now about building. Houses will have to be more efficient in energy usage. I'm working for a green builder while my business is struggling to it's feet. He builds the exterior walls with six by twos, insulates on the outside as well, and uses double the amount of insulation you would find in a normal attic. Everything is caulked, plates, sills, siding, outlets, sheathing, subfloor.....everything. Place is like a submarine. It really does need an air exchanger.

Plenty of energy out there, just that it's not going to be pumped out of the ground as much.