Hydrogen will NEVER be a common fuel for cars, heres why
Well on mars or the moon it might, but true not - on earth.
1) Its lethal. It mixes in air at almost the speed of sound, and can
be
lit off by sparks from clothing. get a cabin full of this and light it
and you'll be the mincemeat occupant of a bubble-car (minus windows).
If you had a hydrogen tank under pressure and just opened it to
atmosphere
there is enough static generated by the flow to auto-ignite, you dont
need an external
ignition source, some people think its good that H2 will ignite with far
wider range than petrol/air mix - but that is actually a huge negative.
2) Its lethal. It has to be transported in specially designed,
hardened
trucks, in multiple canisters, and these trucks are banned by law from
parking in an enclosed space (defined as anything smaller than being in
open air), in case of leaks.
Also H2 fires are notoriously difficult to manage, H2 is static clingy,
doesnt
necessarily go up when it has the chance, it clings and gets absorbed
into
all sorts of plastic materials and can lie dormant for hours under the
right
conditions.
3) Its difficult to store - it requires canisters made of special
grades
of steel that dont become brittle when exposed to it.
The composite tanks used in the BMW car are very expensive and consume
a lot of raw materials for manufacture and still subject to rigorous
leak
testing regimes, very expensive, the fittings are also specialised
alloys.
When it does leak it contributes to the greenhouse effect.
4) Its lethal. If you ever saw some idiot welding within milimeters
of a
petrol tank, imagine that was a tank of hydrogen
I recall someone saying the US hazmat guide said this of an H2 fire,
"Extend arm to full length, raise thumb, if you can still see the
source of
the fire behind your thumb then you are too close"
5) Its lethal. No storage system makes it safe as it still has to
be
able to deliver useful quantities of gas to the engine, which is still
enough to fill the cab in an accident, and once lit you will find the
car about a mile away
The amount of energy by normal gas compression storage is very
low and yes if exhausted will explode, it might be deemed fortunate
there is only one large explosion rather than a liquid fire, who can
say which is worse.
Ok, enough on the lethal...
6) Its pointless. The one GOOD way to burn it (fuel cells) will also
burn diesel (I've seen REAL diesel fuel cells running).
Methanol would be as clean as H2 to burn in a fuel cell for the most
part,
yes no need for H2,
7) Its pointless. Its energy density is pathetically low compared
to
just about anything else.
One litre of petrol at STP is about 9000 Watt Hours, one litre of H2 at
STP
is about 9 Watt Hours. The energy expended in making H2 dense enough
so it equals the value of Petrol hugely diminishes the utility, either
that or
its at such a low temp it cannot be stored for long without having to be
released.
No-one has managed to make a practical hydrogen vehicle that
beats
the economy of a diesel fuel cell / lithium battery hybrid vehicle. Not
even close.
Interestingly, there is more Hydrogen in a litre of petrol than in a
litre of liquid hydrogen.
I've set my 15yr old this task to prove that, but hes playing the Sax at
the Sydney Opera
house this week, chemistry and physics education are so important for
pollies, I would
just love to unleash them in a large remote chem/physics lab
Why cant people give it up? It doesnt even burn cleanly in an
internal
combustion engine (because ICEs dont breathe pure O2).
Yeah these nuts who happily breathe in the exhaust of H2O, NOx and HC's
(from
lube release) just havent reached basic education about combustion...
(Of course, I guess most people here already know all that but
hey
)
Some just dont get it - even today with potential for chem/physics tech
ed, hence
my addition to drive it home with comments here...
On a side note,
- Liquid fuel delivery infrastructure has so many values, it is already
entrenched to a high
degree, any replacement must prove itself long term and that would
take a generation or more.
- There is no problem with petrol, methanol, alcohol re the environment
provided we make
the carbon cycle neutral, that will take some doing but many
technologies are showing up
as possible.
We have a huge liquid fuel infrastructure (and that includes LPG), it
makes far better
thermodynamic and economic sense to refine this mode and move to a carbon
economy
as nature has been doing for millenia, we just need to finesse this with
renewable liquid
fuels like biodiesel from algae/bacteria, methanol/alcohol from waste
organic material
and cellulosic biomass etc etc.
Lets drop the so called hydrogen economy, nature already got rid of it
who knows how
long ago, we should do the same and maybe implement small electric
vehicles for inner
city as the only exception esp where the initial electricity generation
is renewable to start with...
Alan Dean on Megasquirt tells me there is a 30Km hydrogen pipeline in UK
that delivers
75,000 tonnes of H2 each day and its an old pipe, I wonder what the H2
losses are, how
much energy it takes to pump the stuff and if the above ground regions
are marked clearly
for the local fire authorities ?
Regards from
Mike
Perth, Western Australia
VK/VL Commodore Fuse Rail panel that wont warp, twist or melt,
guaranteed !
Twin tyres for most sedans, trikes and motorcycle sidecars