The Hydrogen Economy: And So It Begins...

[EDanaII]

The FCX Clarity is a next-generation, zero-emissions, hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicle based on the entirely-new Honda V Flow fuel cell platform, and powered by the highly compact, efficient and powerful Honda V Flow fuel cell stack. Featuring tremendous improvements to driving range, power, weight and efficiency - and boasting a low-slung, dynamic and sophisticated appearance, previously unachievable in a fuel cell vehicle - the FCX Clarity marks the significant progress Honda continues to make in advancing the real-world performance and appeal of the hydrogen-powered fuel cell car.

They have an interesting strategy to get around the fact that there is no hydrogen infrastructure to support these cars: Honda's Home Energy Station technology is designed to facilitate the broader adoption of zero-emissions fuel cell vehicles, like the FCX Clarity, by developing a home refueling solution that makes efficient use of a home's existing natural gas supply for production of hydrogen, while providing heat and electricity to an average-size home.

Should be interesting where this all leads.

Ed.

[HenryCase]

Thanks for the links EDanall. I'm glad Honda is thinking about the hydrogen infrastructure issue too. However, what we must realise is that hydrogen is not a fuel per se, as it takes energy to produce it on Earth, but rather an energy carrier. If we want to have a sustainable hydrogen economy we must look to sustainable methods of production. Natural gas, used in the Honda generators, isn't sustainable for human needs. These methods look very promising:

http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=110648&org=NSF&from=news
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/02/24/pond_scum_breakthrough/

However, there's something more exciting than cars that run off prepared hydrogen: cars that run off water! Check it out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIgOn1kRw5s
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3333992194168790800

How to make your own water fuel cell:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqL5Sur7LtE

Just search for Stanley Meyer on Google or YouTube for more info.

[bloodline]

HenryCase wrote:
Thanks for the links EDanall. I'm glad Honda is thinking about the hydrogen infrastructure issue too. However, what we must realise is that hydrogen is not a fuel per se, as it takes energy to produce it on Earth, but rather an energy carrier. If we want to have a sustainable hydrogen economy we must look to sustainable methods of production. Natural gas, used in the Honda generators, isn't sustainable for human needs. These methods look very promising:

One could easily replace the natural Gas with Methane produced by fermenting biological waste.

[HenryCase]

bloodline wrote:
One could easily replace the natural Gas with Methane produced by fermenting biological waste.

You could, but the algae method is much more efficient.

We should be capturing the methane given off by landfill sites, there is no reason to let that potential source of energy go to waste. We should also do it because methane is a very powerful greenhouse gas (many times more powerful than CO2) so it is irresponsible to not try and contain it.

[KThunder]

cows stomaches and manure produce more methane than all landfills ever. alot of it is just farted out but many farmers are starting to put the manure into processing equipment to collect and purify the methane ive heard of a few farms that are now running all their equipment on methane they produce.

 

[Damion]

Yeah, this is pretty cool stuff. The Europeans have also been working on this concept for a while:

http://www.emercedesbenz.com/Oct05/12MercedesF600HygeniusOfficiallyAnnounced.html


(As an aside, Stanley Meyer was convicted as a fraud, and ordered to pay back some investors... I find it real hard to believe some redneck is going to build a fuel cell in his garage out of dryer-ducting, zip-ties and PVC. Of course, I could be proven wrong. :-P)

[jj]

A lot of the landfill sites in Wales already burn off the methane produced from landfills to generate electricity.  Not Ideal I know but at least its not wasted

[motorollin]

I've got lots of hydrogen. I keep it in my water. How much do you guys reckon it's worth?

--
moto

[jj]

Not much from memory splitting hyddrogen from water or creating water by combiing hydrogen and oxygen and even creating O3 or ozone is you prefer is very energy intesive and on the whole is pointless  :-D

[motorollin]

Well then I will sell the hydrogen and throw the oxygen in as a freebie ;-)

--
moto

[HenryCase]

-D- wrote:
(As an aside, Stanley Meyer was convicted as a fraud, and ordered to pay back some investors... I find it real hard to believe some redneck is going to build a fuel cell in his garage out of dryer-ducting, zip-ties and PVC. Of course, I could be proven wrong. :-P)

I've heard about this before. I can't be arsed to write a new reply, so please read my comments from a recent post I made elsewhere...

"http://www.padrak.com/ine/NEN_4_8_3.html

"That dream was shattered as Meyer was found guilty of fraud when his Water Fuel Cell failed to impress three "expert witnesses" who decided there was nothing revolutionary about it, rather that it was simply using conventional electrolysis.

The Sunday Times article also stated that when one of the court experts went to examine the Water Fuel Cell driven car, it was impossible to evaluate because it was not working."

If you read between the lines you see that Meyer was convicted of fraud because his invention wasn't working when it was assessed and three expert witnesses, who were probably experts in conventional electrolysis, saw the similarities and concluded there wasn't anything special about it. That doesn't mean his discovery doesn't have merit.

The fact is that the electrolysis technique Meyer discovered had already been demonstrated to work. He had to perform a demonstration to get his patents. More info here:

http://www.rexresearch.com/meyerhy/meyerhy.htm "

Thanks for reading. :-D