Since fuel prices are of concern to all of us, I offer the following food for thought.
Hydrogen: It's the most plentiful element in the known universe.
The Germans (BMW) have been working on it as a automotive propulsion fuel since the last oil crunch in the 70's (I won't include it's disastrous use in the 30's for buoyancy). Oh, the humanity. [img]images/icons/crazy.gif[/img]
GM has announced that it will be selling a hydrogen powered vehicle in this decade.
Here is a link to a Carpoint testers review on the minivan based vehicle being tested along with an explanation of fuel-cell technology:
GM's HydroGen1
Hydrogen's 'pollution' component, depending on whether it is a closed or open (breather) system is either water vapor or water vapor/nitrous oxide, respectively.
The only hangup is: delivery of the
fuel to the consumer. Seems that Detroit has "arranged" with oil companies for hydrogen to be supplied in the future at those same stations you fill up at now.
Huh? The early BMW versions of these powerplants extracted ("cracked") hydrogen from guess what? Water. Fuel on tap. [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]
Now you will need "refined" hydrogen in order to power your vehicle. A resource that will be controlled by: [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img]
your friends at Exxon, Amoco, et. al.. A VERY cozy collusion. Oh well, I guess it beats paying on the other side for all those unemployed oil company execs to draw a welfare check. [img]images/icons/tongue.gif[/img]
[img]images/icons/crazy.gif[/img]
Added on Edit:
I realize the combination powerplant/extraction system would be more expensive to produce/purchase than a powerplant alone. One would have to make the same cost/benefit analysis many of our PSD bretheren do. One difference: the cost of water currently is far less than diesel/gas.
No slam on capitalism or the free market here, just makes you wonder. I guess it was inevitable, given that some people will pay $1.29 for 16 ounces of bottled tap water (contents: 67% hydrogen!). Ah, convenience leads to complacency. I'll withhold further judgement until I see how much we'll be paying for the 'fuel of the new century'.
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