Main > Everything Else
Learning a Lesson
jbox:
--- Quote from: SithMaster on December 16, 2006, 02:53:16 pm ---why isnt hydrogen applicable?
--- End quote ---
Because hydrogen is not a silver bullet like some people want it to be. Hydrogen is only viable if you also have solar, hydro, wind, geo, etc... power being used to create the fuel in the first place. And if battery technology improves by as little as 50% in the next couple of years there will be no point *at all* of worrying about hydrogen fuel cells since the *only* problem they actually solve is the range issue.
AlanS17:
Well having electric cells doesn't solve the problem of fossil fuels. I think this was also touched on by SithMaster, though I don't feel like he clarifies it.
Where does the power come from to actually make the electric cells? For that matter, where does the power come from to make the cars? You need some sort of source energy - the kind of energy used to power electric companies and factories. Right now, that's primarily fossil fuels. Even though a lot of people freak out about the dangers of it, I really think atomic energy is a solution to a lot of our problems. Disposal can become an issue, but I think that's a much smaller task to tackle than depleting fossil fuels.
Of course solar, wind, hydro are all possibilities, but I think it would be difficult to generate the massive amounts of power using those technologies that you can get from atomic power. I think the biggest exception would be hydro power, but that's very dependent on how close you are to a large body of moving water.
ChadTower:
To get hydrogen, you need to use fuel. To transport it, you need to use fuel. When it sits in storage, you need to allow some evaporation for safety reasons. So, from source to consumer, Hydrogen is only about a 20-25% proposition.
That's never going to fly in a large economy.
danny_galaga:
--- Quote from: ChadTower on December 16, 2006, 11:09:05 pm ---
To get hydrogen, you need to use fuel. To transport it, you need to use fuel. When it sits in storage, you need to allow some evaporation for safety reasons. So, from source to consumer, Hydrogen is only about a 20-25% proposition.
That's never going to fly in a large economy.
--- End quote ---
i fully agree with you. but hydrogen is not a 'new' technology. 'new' technologies to me implies technologies that havent been conceived yet. and since big business looks only at the bottom line at present and not what lies in the future, there isnt much incentive to develop 'new' technologies. i had a girlfriend who did a masters in busiess management who pointed out to me once that all economic models seem to be based on 'fishing in a river with infinite resources'. and that is how the oil situation is now. we are all of us behaving as if it is an infinite resource and so for the most part we plan the future with that erroneous concept.
naturally i dont have an answer. i agree its not hydrogen. i dont know why people keep thinking it will change things. unless we develop a new technology to synthesise photosynthesis...
SithMaster:
Maybe people think hydrogen is the next big thing because its the only thing that kinda resembles gasoline. i remember reading (maybe 5 years ago havent kept up on the fuel ideas) that hydrogen fuel stations would be phased in or something like that for testing.
that and it was getting a lot of media coverage.
for general power generation i think the best method as of now is solar panels on rooftops of buildings. problem is you have to get permission from your power supplier for the panels to be put up.
i agree atomic seems to be the best for massive scale generation but the waste will never be properly disposed.
maybe it will take another world war for a new form of renewable energy to be developed. kind of like how in the second world war new innovations were made. seems we always need a push.
why photosynthesis? but you could have the right idea. maybe manipulating some form of plant functions can be used.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version