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Hydrogen as a vehicle fuel source

Clipped to the Drawing Board by John William

The relatively quick-and-easy answer to foreign oil dependence and automotive greenhouse gas emissions is seen as hydrogen by many people.
If Hydrogen is to be the fuel of the future there are several problems to overcome and one problem is that Hydrogen is a gas and cannot easily be pumped into a tank like gasoline. Storage in the form of solid hydrides , chemical compounds of hydrogen and a metal or semimetal, are good storage materials in principle, but have not been well suited to automotive applications. An American engineering research team at the Ford Motor Company in Dearborn and the University of California, Los Angeles, have now developed a novel hydride which could be a useful starting point for the development of future automotive hydrogen-storage materials.
Whilst there are many good reasons to switch vehicles to hydrogen, researchers at the University of Warwick (UK) advise that "The enormity of the green challenge is not fully understood" and that whilst "Many people think that hydrogen is a simple alternative to oil, it will in fact require a huge investment in either wind farms, nuclear plants or similar green, energy producing infrastructure"
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Start a conversation

Spud ()

Newbie | 2008-01-05 04:26:16

lots of pieces in a jigsaw puzzle and they all need to come together to make the big picture complete - these need to be looked at in that context -

Toby ()

Newbie | 2008-01-05 04:32:13

yeah, easy to toss around the buzz words - but not many people really understand the nuts and bolts and the impact this could have - still, thats why we have governments and bureaucrats to do the hard yards

JohnCee ()

Newbie | 2008-01-05 15:50:17

I was particularly interested in the second article and the findings from the report - it was really only a few lines, and a summary, you would need to look at the detail before forming a conclusive opinion - but on the face of it - quite staggering numbers - so whilst other sources such as large scale solar mirrors located in space might produce huge amounts of energy - thats still a long way off - if at all - increasingly the answer for a "NOW" solution looks like nuclear - as frightening as that is -

Des ()

Newbie | 2008-01-05 15:53:04

if push came to shove - its amazing what can be achieved when the pressure is on - my view is that all of of the problems could be overcome if there was an arbitrary decision made to go hydrogen

Saturday 5 January, 2008 06:10 AM

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