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The Hydrogen Page (Hit your refresh button now) The most important rule DIYers can practice is to think in BTUs, NEVER lose sight of the BTU value, and what is given up in processing or conversion of an energy source. Enron type accounting is often used to express the great potential of hydrogen as a fuel. This page is here to provoke thought. If you have energy to throw away, (Australia and Iceland Do), hydrogen always makes sense; in most real life situations, there's a far better use for the BTUs you have already versus converting it to hydrogen, I visited one website where it was stated that you can get hydrogen for free if you have a solar panel. That's certainly true if you don't figure the high cost of the solar panel into the cost of your free hydrogen :-) . If you are truly aware of green aspects, solar panels take a good amount of energy to make, and this process pollutes. If you agree with the logic (it's free), you need to give the Enron folks a free pass. ... personally, I think they need to be hung on a pole. You have a gallon of Gasoline that contains far more hydrogen than a gallon of liquid hydrogen. But you're going to pour this gasoline into a generator to make some hydrogen via electrolysis to burn in your scooter? Maybe you're smarter than that? Maybe you've heard of a fuel processor, and you're going to use one of them for the conversion of a hydrocarbon to some nice clean hydrogen? What's the efficiency of the conversion? What are the emissions of the processor? If you follow the BTUs and the conversion losses, it becomes a pretty insane thing to do; but they're doing it Europe right now, so it must be a good idea right? Biodiesel has FAR more energy than gasoline per volume and straight veggie oil has more than that! Like it or not, a diesel electric hybrid power plant has more promise than anything hydrogen until we master fusion power, or take an equally quantum leap forward in our technology in fuel processors. Before we get further, that may VERY WELL happen, there are some reformers, or so called fuel processors that are reportedly (an ambiguous word) doing an efficient job of converting Alcohol to a fuel suitable for a fuel cell. There is also a company that is in the planning stages of producing a cell phone for sale that is powered by alcohol, it contains a small cell than runs directly off the alcohol, and a gallon of alcohol could keep the cell phone up to service for 10 years! Will this technology scale up? Every motor head has the vision of a fuel cell driving Electric Motors on all four wheels in an automobile. When we consider the torque that can be made at low RPM, and the composites that can be deployed to make it light weight, it will be a profound step forward, and could also provide performance like nothing we have seen yet! When we consider that an auto has to be designed to transfer the energy from the engine thru the drive train, and deliver this torque to the wheels, much of the engineering is focused on building rigid structures and hard mounting points that can take these forces. Furthermore, the losses we find in the drive train are far greater than the average person often understands. Delivering this energy directly to the wheel via an electric current from a low mass fuel cell, allows an Engineer to focus on more important things, the upspring weight may indeed go up a bit at first, but composites, and the lower overall mass of the vehicle should provide a vehicle we only dream of today. Consider that fuel cells are more likely to be part of the 'crush zone' and that they could indeed absorb energy in an accident versus transfer impact to the occupants as in an engine block or transmission. it appears there is so much to gain, that man will make this happen sooner or later. Current events SHOULD give us much to think about. Many of us understand that propaganda can be even more effective than the truth. Hollywood Actors step forward and present their expert opinions on what our Government should be doing... and people listen! Home Power magazine might be "food for thought", there's some good information in this publication, but if you're going there to form your political opinions, you may be as lost as the guy who still believes in the carburetor that got 200 miles per gallon bolted to the stock engine in a 1954 Ford Pickup. Some of us might get a real kick out of their 'Power Politics' column Michael Welch writes. After reading a few issues, I might find an article written by Michael Welch on what kind of Cannabis is best to smoke with a particular fortified wine more credible than anything to do with politics. But as a good Friend pointed out, his articles provide exactly what the majority of Home Power Readers want, more reason to hate the establishment, and all it stands for. This might be a greater draw for future magazine sales than an article on where to buy brand new fork lift batteries for $2 each delivered! If G.W. Bush healed all the sick, solved world hunger, and developed a pocket sized self powered fuel processor that converted sewer water to 10,000 gallons of liquid hydrogen a day, the far left would find fault with his effort :-) Home power thinks of themselves as being without bias, what do you think? Hydrogen has promise, but it isn't here yet, and like fusion power, it may be further down the road than we'll be allowed to travel in this lifetime, (I hope not).... In the mean time, do your best to follow the BTUs, and you won't be part of the propaganda, it's thicker than Molasses. Burning veggie is here now, and the diesel engine does a real nice job of burning it with low emissions. Dream, but get started doing something that makes sense now, the diesel and veggie is what Mr. Rudolf Diesel intended, and he came up with the idea a long time ago. As of this date, we have politicians who claim to support green fuels, but you may be aware that many of the engines that burn Biofuels like Biodiesel and Veggie oil are being banned by our EPA. You see, the EPA demands that the same engine we use to burn biofuels in MUST pass emissions with Petrol Diesel, what's that all about? I thought we were trying to reduce our dependence on Petrol fuels??
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