The Hydrogen Economy

[FatherDunlap]

http://blog.wired.com/cars/2008/03/hydrogen-cars-a.html

This article asks the right question, "Where do we get the hydrogen?". But then it goes on to say that the challenge is converting our gas stations over to hydrogen stations. OK...but where do the hydrogen stations get the hydrogen?

http://www-formal.stanford.edu/jmc/prog ... rogen.html

Hydrogen does not occur free in nature in useful quantities. It has to be made, usually by splitting water H2O to get the hydrogen. This requires all the energy you are going to get from burning the hydrogen and a bit more on account of inefficiencies. Therefore, hydrogen is an energy transfer medium rather than a primary source of energy. Hydrogen is obtained by splitting water (H2O) into hydrogen and oxygen.

Unfortunately, most of the electricity production in the US comes from burning fossil fuels, so any large scale move to fuel cell vehicles would only increase our fossil fuel consumption. Pretty ironic, huh?

And I didn't even mention the ridiculous costs of the fuel cells themselves, which require the rare-earth metal platinum (which is fetching about $2000/oz these days).

Renewable energy my ass.