View Single Post
Old 03-26-2013, 09:09 PM   #43 (permalink)
cRiPpLe_rOoStEr
It's all about Diesel
 
cRiPpLe_rOoStEr's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2012
Location: Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
Posts: 12,548
Thanks: 0
Thanked 1,622 Times in 1,447 Posts
Quote:
Originally Posted by Air-Hybrid View Post
Unfortunately, fuel cells suffer from being one of those techs constantly labelled as 'just around the corner' by politicians and journos!
Maybe, politicians and jornalists' engagement in a fuel-cell hype takes some credibility away from them. Needless to say how politicians fail, and how many journalists are irresponsible.


Quote:
I think the main reasons they are still so economically uncertainty has less to do with improvements in 'cell' technology (including cost reduction) but is more a matter of storage and infrastructure. ... That's why I like this methanol route so much!
I remember one teacher from my high-school senior year doing some comments about the '89-'90 ethanol crisis in Brazil, when American methanol and even Italian grape ethanol were imported to keep dedicated-ethanol cars running instead of retrofitting them to run on gasoline. He said pure methanol is highly toxic, so it required the gas station attendants to wear an "astronaut suit" to ensure methanol vapors wouldn't penetrate thru their skin, but in Brazilian gas stations some reckless attendants thought they were safe just with a surgical mask
  Reply With Quote