Hydrogen Cars Not Needed, U.S. Experts Say

from the other-solutions-better dept

With all the hype of hydrogen cars, and the amount of money that is being spent on producing them, two "energy experts" in the US are saying it's a mistake to focus on hydrogen cars as a solution to environmental issues. There are too many questions about hydrogen cars, and the same results could be achieved by raising fuel efficiency and toughening environmental standards. Of course, I'm always a little skeptical of random "experts" making statements like this. It often turns out that those experts have their own biases that they're not revealing.
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  • identicon
    Beck, 18 Jul 2003 @ 12:41pm

    No Subject Given

    OK AC, here's where you go off on environmentalists, right?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 18 Jul 2003 @ 1:45pm

    Forests of Fire

    The quickest way to get the masses whipped up into a frenzy of anti-hydrogen hysteria is to show movies of what happens when people soaked with hydrogen ignite. The tiny hydrogen molecules will seep right through the bodily tissues, resulting in the body simultaneously burning on the surface and inside. Intestinal gases and hydrogen will make fire shoot out both ends of the digestive system, while skin pores will become thousands of little volcanoes spewing forth flames.

    Though, hydrogen might be a good way to fast-cook meat, now that I think about it.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      LittleW0lf, 18 Jul 2003 @ 2:24pm

      Re: Forests of Fire

      Hmmm....

      Except that there is one problem with this. According to my experience in High-school and College chemistry, Hydrogen, at room temperature, is a gas. And in order to "soak" someone in Hydrogen, it must be a liquid, at -423F, which would more than likely kill the person due to temperature loss than due to fire.

      Also, hydrogen dissipates quickly, so in order to effectively do what you wish to do, the hydrogen must be compressed into an airtight area, at such as level that the human trapped in side would likely die of asphyxiation long before burning could occur.

      But you knew that, right?

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 18 Jul 2003 @ 4:56pm

        Re: Forests of Fire

        Soaking applies just as much to gases. Hydrogen is an odorless, colorless gas. Our atmosphere is only about 21% oxygen. In a closed room or car, one will not notice a presence of hydrogen. If hydrogen replaced the nitrogen in the atmosphere, we would not notice it, even though it is extremely explosive. Hydrogen can bond to cellular tissue through electrostatic attractions, even if the gas dissipates quickly.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Dan, 18 Jul 2003 @ 2:00pm

    No Subject Given

    The truth of the matter is, if the Bush administration can shift the focus to the futuristic hydrogen car concept, then he hopes people wont look around and see the right here right now Hybrid car reality. Promise "Clean Burning Hydrogen" that needs an infrastructure built around it and wont happen in the next 20 years - but ignore The Prius, Insight, Accord and any number of REAL vehicles that get 50+ mpg with the current infrastructure.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 18 Jul 2003 @ 2:04pm

      Re: No Subject Given

      Yeah, let's dish out the $50,000 for these worthless hybrid vehicles, prone to discontinuation, that nobody knows how to fix.

      ahahahahahahahahahahaha
      hahahahaha clean emissions ahahahahahah
      ahahahahaahah

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Joe Scmoe, 18 Jul 2003 @ 2:39pm

    Was it...

    Was it hydrogen or some other fuel alternative that i recently read has is potentially more detrimental to the ozone than good ol' gas engines by way escaping [hydrogen?] during refilling, transport, production, etc.

    link to this | view in chronology ]


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