Great advance for the fuel-cell car, no explosive gas on board

[Sammus]

Originally Posted by What's_nitro?

Actually, if you were burning the hydrogen in an ICE the oxygen would be burned as well. The holy grail of FCV is creating such a system which can recycle the water from the exhaust and split it back into HHO fast enough to sustain combustion. In effect a "closed-system" powerplant. Imagine NEVER having to put any type of fuel into your car again.

We obey the laws of thermodynamics in this house! So unless you can make it 100% efficient it ain't gunna happen :P

Sad fact of reality in this dimension - there is no free anything, everything comes with a price. Nothing can be or will be 100% efficient.

There are no perpetual motions machines allowed in this dimension.

I read somewhere last year or maybe real early this year that somewhere in Japan they were powering homes with fuel cells - something about the size of a water heater/sm refrigerator. Su[pposed to run a house for a few months. No costs given, no discussion if it was for 12v DC system or inverted AC or any details. This is what its going to take - mass usage, mass production to make costs affordable. I'd hate to think what the fuel cells flying in the Shuttle cost.

I am sorry, but the plan is to take water, split it, recombine it and harness the energy?
If they found a way to split water with less overall cost (energy) then the amount of energy that can be harnessed from a FCV then they just revolutionized the world.
Being as I do not believe that they overcame the problem of the Law of Conservation I think that they are hiding something. If their chemical reaction to produce hydrogen from water uses less energy then you get back from the hydrogen/oxygen reaction to power the car then that energy is coming from somewhere. How often does this chemical need to be replaced? how expensive is it? how toxic is it?

I worked for an automotive company in their fuel cell facility, I think the technology is applicable. But it is not ready yet. Those Honda's will probably spend 10-20% of the time at the shop.
Additionally the lease Honda is charging will not even cover a quarter of the cost of the car, probably much less (when I left the facility I was at the cars would cost 50k if mass produced, but were running around 200k in the quantities being produced at the time).
Also,
Where is the hydrogen going to come from?
The statement that hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe is true but misleading. Almost all of the hydrogen in the universe is in the stars. On our planet the easiest ways to get hydrogen is either cracking natural gas (methane) or electrolysis of water. Both of which are very energy intensive, where is that energy going to come from?

Oh, btw hydrogen is not that dangerous, if the tank is pierced the hydrogen will dissipate quickly. In anything expect the worst accident, a hydrogen car would be safer then a gasoline powered car.
The technology is coming, it will work, I am just sick of all these gimmick to make people think it is viable now and/or it solves all of the problems. The only problem is solves is you do not need gasoline. But you will need electricity to create the hydrogen, and to increase demand for electricity by the amount that would be required you would need coal/natural gas/nuclear. The enviro energies (wind/solar) would require way to much of a footprint.
Honestly an electric car or plug in fuel cell (with larger batteries) would be better suited to fix the transportation issues.

[What's_nitro?]

Originally Posted by Sammus

We obey the laws of thermodynamics in this house! So unless you can make it 100% efficient it ain't gunna happen :P

Ok, ok. I know there would be SOME losses so I'll change it to "very rarely having to put any fuel into your car".