Just a point of clarification because some of this hydrogen "fuel"
information is kind of getting kind of convoluted and misinterpreted. There
are 4 Hydrogen technologies.
(1) Hydrogen is burned like a conventional fuel and the expansion drives a
piston (an internal combustion engine).
(2) Hydrogen is used like number 1 but the motor drives a generator that
creates electricity to drive the car (a hybrid),
(3) Hydrogen is burned and the heat turns water into steam (an external
combustion engine i.e. steam engine).
(4) Hydrogen passes through an osmotic membrane giving off electrons in the
process and generating electricity (commonly called a fuel-cell). No heat is
produced (well, maybe a little) and the byproduct is mostly water. Fuel
cells do NOT use heat-of-expansion. In fact heat is detrimental to the
process. It is fundamentally different from the former 3.
The fuel cell technology is probably the most promising for our future. All
of the other 3 are stop-gap measures until fuel-cells are optimize into a
consumer item. Tremendous progress has been made in efficiency. Hydrogen
storage is still a problem to be reckoned with. As Ed mentioned, metal
hydride storage and the fuel cell appear to be the safest in case of a
highway accident because there is NO high pressure Hydrogen storage.
As Dan has mentioned the first 3 technologies shouldn't belong in the
electric class. (They are using HEAT EXPANSION). However, the fuel cell
technology might be a consideration for the electric classes. After all
nothing is being BURNED! In this case H2 is consumed to produce
electricity. Just like battery technologies consume materials, the fuel cell
does the same thing. As far as I know no fuel cell has run at Bonneville.
-Elon
(Snip . . .)What would a Hybrid car be in? It drives through a motor
ultimately. The motor drives the transmission with battery power and the
engine recharges the battery and provides drive power when needed. It's an
in between class with both electric power and engine power.
-Otto
|