[POLL] Would you drive a hydrogen-powered vehicle?

[Bicycle Bob]

Hydrogen is a major greenhouse gas, and the hardest to handle of our fuel options. If it is a by-product of other work, and not needed as a reactant, I'd run it through a fuel cell on-site.

[vinny1989]

No, i wouldnt.

It probably costs (And will for a long time) more money and time and energy to create the hydrogen than you get out of it.

Id prefer electric, even with limited range at least the infrastructure to refill exists almost everywhere.

[vtec-e]

I'm unsure. Mostly because i don't know the figures. There's also the political agenda to consider. Who benefits from this? Who doesn't?
Re: battery powered cars, who benefits there? Who doesn't?
I could drive a battery car and have to replace the batteries in 3 to 4 years. Thats a few k. Maybe 4k? Then i have to charge it. Ideally,thats with PV. Thats got a limited lifespan. All to be factored in. Then theres the "greenness" of the batteries, or lack of.

But, bottom line, the total cost. I forsee being fleeced at the pump, yet again, if i refuel with H2.
Because the powers that be are NOT going to let us enjoy life too much are they?
You can talk all day about emissions but if it costs too much to go anywhere then we will not go anywhere. Where's the Big Oil bottom line there then?

My bottom line is this:

Is this to save the world or save our pockets?

We can all retreat back to the caves and do both. Or we can fall into the "Manmade Global Warming" debate and hand over our entire earnings to some multinational, so they can try "save" the world. I don't doubt that we have added to the fire but i do doubt that it has been that much. I definitely believe that there is a certain amount of scaremongering going on, with regards to the "hydrogen economy" and EV cars in general.
If there was a Hubble Telescope battery available for an EV car then 'd be onto it like a shot! But i don't like the prospect of blowing a few k on a new battery pack every 3 to 4 years. The tech is there but "WE" can't have it. Typical.
I think they are laughing at us.

ollie

[MadisonMPG]

Voted "Time will tell".

Couple things that will matter:
Cost
Range
Replacement stuff

[roflwaffle]

Originally Posted by cfg83

I said no. Hybrids still have a gasser infrastructure.

All the hybrid tech was just stuff that had already been commercialized for decades being repackaged anyway, so the only question was whether or not OEMs could put it all together and still make a profit. They didn't have a major component (fuel cell) that hasn't been mass produced anywhere, not to mention cost, if production ramps up in the first place.

[Frank Lee]

Hydrogen?!? Oh the humanity!!!

[jkp1187]

Would I *drive* one? Sure. Why not?

Would I *buy* one? Right now, no. Don't need a new car right now, and I agree with the concerns about the infrastructure.

My next car will likely be a diesel. The car after that, well, all bets are off. I'm guessing by 2020, there should be some interesting non-internal combustion engine examples worthy of consideration. It's conceivable that H2 could be a serious contender, but I wouldn't bet the farm on it right now.

[gone-ot]

...would I DRIVE one? Yes!

...but, would I OWN one? No!

...why? because there's (currently) no infra-structure to support Hydrogen fuel, ie: no "gas" stations, storage fields, nor established distribution modalities..

...got a 'spare' Hindenberg available to come deliver Hydrogen gas to you on a lonely interstate ala' Triple-AAA?

[RobertSmalls]

Wikipedia says the electricity->H2->electricity efficiency of a fuel cell is 30-50%. That's much, much worse than batteries. Sure, refilling is easier, but the environmental impact of H2 is too large.

Barring a major breakthrough in the efficiency of hydrogen production, such as low-temperature cracking of H2O as a waste-heat recovery process, I favor lithium and lead-acid batteries over hydrogen fuel cells.


http://www.hydrogenhighway.ca.gov/fa...elltowheel.pdf

The above link indicates that if you're using grid electricity to produce hydrogen, HFCV's pollute much more than conventional gasoline-powered cars. Better to buy a gas-sipper and a windmill, than a HFCV.

[NeilBlanchard]

Hi,

Hydrogen is a storage medium; not a fuel.

I think most of the loss is in the fuel cell turning H2 back into electricity. Recently MIT figured out a nearly 100% efficient way to make H2 from water.

I do not think that hydrogen is a greenhouse gas -- it disperses too quickly to contribute, I think. Methane is huge and of course carbon dioxide.

Storage is tough -- though the recent process to use chicken feathers (with their 8 angstrom hollow tubes!) to store hydrogen much less expensively makes this more plausible. I think hydrogen will need to be produced and stored and dispensed in a single location. Transporting it is very difficult.

Hydrogen cars will also need a battery or ultra-capacitor to store power from regenerative braking. So, I'm not sure that hydrogen can be as useful (or as efficient) as a battery EV, since they are essentially doing the same thing.