meehawl

all that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned

Hydrogen Hurdles

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Suppose you load compressed hydrogen into canisters and put them on the back of tractor trailers: you will need fifteen of these trucks to serve the same number of vehicles as one gasoline tanker does today, and if on average they’re traveling three hundred miles, they’re using 40 percent of all the energy they deliver just to transport it. Suppose you decide instead to produce the hydrogen at filling stations with small steam methane reformers … building the necessary infrastructure to service 40 percent of American vehicles by this method would exceed $600 billion.

2 Responses

  1. rory says:
    2004-06-06 at 10:11:12

    but once the fixed costs have been met, the methane reformers will continue to produce. it seems to me that a much-neglected aspect of the WoT is the reduction of u.s. dependence on oil. without requirements for imported energy, the u.s. could aim for splendid isolation and just not bother with hostile regimes in the middle east. okay, so there are hundreds of reasons why this is unlikely to happen. but nevertheless the oil will run out some day.

  2. Anonymous says:
    2004-06-10 at 10:11:12

    michael kovler had a funny theory that we should be using only foreign oil. when all the foreign oil is used up, america and mexico will have plenty.

    of course the simple answer seems to be something like 10 miles x 10 miles in Arizon of mirrors that point at a solar tower(s). That would power the ENTIRE US energy demand. Convert it to some form (hydrogen, or any other battery form) and ship it out to the rest of the country.

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