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Did you see the article I read recent about German automaker BMW being hell bent on producing cars to run on hydrogen fuel by year 2008? Well, BMW may not be the first to give hint of the intention to build hydrogen vehicles. General Motors was known to have been working at producing hydrogen cars too, since year 2000.

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Research has uncovered a rather interest turn of events into the Global Warming Sage. And apparently complications have arisen along with the temperatures. You see Fuel Cells generate a lot of heat during the conversion process; nearly twice that of regular reciprocating engines.

Solving the Nation's problems with regards to pollution is a wise thing to do, yet if we merely trade one problem for another we have essentially solved nothing. Are we sure we wish to increase Urban Heat with millions of fuel cell cars running around? hydrogen is also difficult to store and cooling of compressed hydrogen takes energy too.

Hydrogen collection with current technologies is not really free, as it costs money to collect and separate out. If the hydrogen sits in your fuel tank for three days it could leak as much as 50% and then you would have less fuel because the hydrogen all escaped from seeping out of your fuel tank.

Storage of hydrogen will not be so easy either because it must be kept very cold. These are just some of the issues that research scientists are working through right now and will eventually get it all figured out, but consider it a longer term goal for about 10-20 years or so. Now there have been significant recent advances and materials such as Carbon Nano-Tubes may be the answer to prevent leakage.

Certainly having a Hydrogen Collector machine in your garage to take Hydrogen from the air to use to power your house, car and your Artificially Intelligent robotic garden lawn mower of the future sounds interesting and you can collect your own energy - Free! Of course easier said than done, but yes technologically and scientifically speaking it is indeed possible.

Hydrogen cells for trucks is also somewhat problematic. For the Trucking Industry to see wide spread use of fuel cells we need all the Truck Stops to carry the Hydrogen Fuel, trained mechanics and technicians, limits on finish products liability lawsuits and 100s of thousands of trucks to be built with fuel cells in them. You cannot put the cart before the horse if you plan on moving the Trucking and Transportation Industry into the new age of Fuel Cells.

Hydrogen

There is a new website dedicated to hydrogen Fuel that has come on to the scene. H2 and You

Anyways I would like to clip from one of their stories today about the use of hydrogen fuel in buses in CA. Check it out and learn:

Riding Hydrogen Buses in California Using public transportation is a good way to reduce pollution caused by personal vehicles. In the San Francisco Bay Area, AC Transit, one of the largest public transport systems in the region, is taking that idea a step further. They're replacing some transit buses running on diesel with hybrid buses that are powered by electricity from hydrogen fuel cells and batteries. AC Transit calls this program "Taking the HyRoad," with "Hy" referring to hydrogen and hybrid technology. Since March 2006, these new buses have transported more than 150,000 people, educating them about hydrogen and fuel cells and eliminating particulates like nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide which standard diesel buses emit. The hydrogen buses are extremely quiet, and get their power from the electricity produced by the on-board hydrogen fuel cell, as well as regenerative breaking from the hybrid propulsion system. The result is a very smooth, quiet, clean ride, especially compared to a bus with an internal combustion engine and transmission.

energy Tags: wind+power" rel="tag">wind power, alternative

We try to present a balanced view of the emerging alternative energy technologies on our pages. That means taking a critical eye to the science and tech of what is behind those options. I found a good article today that talks about hydrogen fuel cell technology and why the writer does not think it has viability in the near term.

Ed Ring of www.ecoworld.com argues in an Always On post titled "The Hydrogen Hoax" that hydrogen production uses too much energy going in for the resulting output, whether you are using biomass, electricity or god forbid fossil fuels to generate the hyrdogen in the first place.

First of all, hydrogen isn’t a primary fuel. It has to be produced from something else, either from electricity via electrolysis, or refined from fossil fuel, or distilled from biomass. In all these cases, using the source fuel directly would be far more efficient than converting this energy into hydrogen.

There are many proponents of this technology in the mainstream these days but do they have their information down. In California the Govenor has proposed a whole network of hydrogen service stations across the state, well he did awhile ago anyways but not much has been heard from him on that front lately. Maybe reality crept into the equation.

I think there is room for optimism in this are of fuel technology but perhaps it is not our savior in the near term as many environmentalists have proposed.

What do you think?

Energy Tags: hydrogen fuel cell

hydrogen Fuel Cell is the all new alternative fuel. Simple add-ons to your car's engine would now allow you to greatly Increase your Fuel Economy. For many years scientists, drivers and car owner have been seeking a way to replace the traditional fuel in the car's engine.

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