hydrogen fuel cells coming soon

[ledfoot]

Straight from the mouth of Bill O'Rielly (I know,I know)"In ten years we will be using hydrogen fuel cells instead of gas.The Middle East will be out of our hair" Any merit to this?...What would this do to our beloved sportscars?......Dave

 

[Chuck 98 RT/10]

I heard this when I was in college 20 years ago. Eventually they'll be right. For now we might as well burn oil, what else is it good for?

 

[snowmann]

It will never happen. With as much money Exxon makes your kidding if you think that would happen. I am sure we could make a car that could run on water (better steam engine), but it will never see the light of day. That talk has been going on for YEARS, and still gasoline engines.

 

[ledfoot]

If the technology is there,we may be pi$$ed-off enough at the Middle-East to actually do something....my 2cents

 

[Snake Bitten]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by ledfoot:
hydrogen fuel cells coming soon... <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Not in my lifetime...

 

[Viperfreak2]

BMW has developed a fleet of hydrogen powered internal combustion cars. Same driving characteristics as and fossil fuel engine, can run on gas in a pinch, and all we need is a hydrogen nozzle at the local fillin station (Munich airport is the only one so far) The 750HL's use V-12 engines and have plenty of power with no emissions except water. I'm sure the HSRT-10 will have at least 600hp....

 

[weed43]

As long as there is oil left in the ground you will never see the hydrogen engine in mass production. And if it was left up to Bill O'Rielly there wouldn't be a Viper.

 

[Elite1]

O'Rilley is usually on the mark, however, his comments on the SUV were oh shall we say ODD. Sure the US you be better off without SUV's, we'd be better off without cars at all, heck we'd be better off without TV... The only time these people belive in freedom of choice without condemnation is in the abortion arguments....

 

[ntmatter]

Many fuel cells would still use some sort of fossil fuel (Natural Gas is a popular option) instead of pure hydrogen. It pollutes some but is still very clean. The thing about internal combustion is that it is not an especially efficient way to extract energy from fuel. Most of it gets wasted as heat, vibration, noise, etc. With an electric vehicle, you can deliver vast amounts of torque and still get better mileage than with an IC engine. Imagine 1500 HP of instant-on torque, 25 MGP, no noise, and ultra-low emmisions.

 

[joe117]

Doesn't it take more energy to make hydrogen than you get from it? I think it's sort of like alcohol from corn. The government pays the farmers to grow corn and then they can sell it cheap enough to make alcohol.
How do you make hydrogen commercially, electrolysis?

 

[JDR]

Here's a place with a bunch of "cell toys" if anyone's interested:

50 watt fuel cell

Desktop methenol fuel cell car!

 

[BruceW]

This is a little off topic but the Mechanical Engineering Department at San Diego State University is going to be building a hybrid-powered Viper. It will use a 200 HP V-4 along with a 300 HP electric motor and will be able to put out 500 HP and 500 ft-lb for bursts of up to 70 miles and get an average of 70 MPG. They have already built a smaller high performance car; looks like a Boxster and can out perform it. It gets 80 MPG. I think hybrid cars are going to happen before fuel cells but nothing will happen as long as gas is cheaper than bottled water.

 

[Vip-RT10]

As long as oil tycoons are still in power, there will be no H cars until we end up killing ourselves off.

 

[KepRght]

it will be a reality in the next 4 years... japan already has them in production

 

[Bonkers]

Hey, I'm all for change. If the new eltric hybrid Viper does the 1/4 in 10 flat what do I care if its running octane or a flux capacitor.

A few years back I read an article on a 200lb eletric motor that could fit into a suitcase. It was being developed for the Abrhams tank and had a reported 400 lb/ft of torque with no curve. Say what you will, but imagine one of those mounted to each tire of a viper.

I hope Bill is right, but I also hope we don't have to sacrafic performance to get there...

 

[joe117]

I don't know if "oil tycoons" could really keep new fuel source technology locked away. Think about it, Japan has high tech and no oil. If there was a way to do it, they would do it. They don't stand to gain anything from holding back.
I still don't have any answer to the question about how much energy it takes to produce the hydrogen.

 

[Viperfreak2]

Of course it takes more energy to make hydrogen than it gives back. You can't get more than you put in, Einstein stuff. The real topic is can we expect all cars to have similar performance, and with GPS and electronic controls, will our future Vipers be E-limited? 400ftlbs at each wheel would be insane!

 

[joe117]

You can get more energy out of petroleum products than it takes to make, "refine", them. I'm just wondering about the production of hydrogen, energy to produce it. That's not Einstein stuff.

 

[Jay Herbert]

Movin' top off topic.....