<sssiiiggghhhh>

Time to get out the physics book again...

It's easy to get hydrogen out of water. But the power you get out of the hydrogen is *less* than the electricity you used to get it. Looking for some science fun? All you need are a couple batteries, some paper clips and some salt water: http://www.theodoregray.com/PeriodicTable/Stories/001.1/

Another way to look at it: Petroleum is an "energy source"; we get more out of the gasoline (or whatever) than we put into drilling/refining/everything else we do to get it.
Hydrogen is (based on currently available technology) only an "energy form"; perhaps a convenient way to store or use energy, but it depends on an energy source being available to produce it.

Until this fundamental issue is resolved, developing fuel cell cars on a large scale simply won't make sense. Either we come up with a more efficient way to procedure hydrogen, or we come up with some other energy source so plentiful that any efficiency loss converting it to hydrogen isn't important.

Last edited by phil; 06/06/06 09:58 PM.

1995 Contour GL V6 ATX T/C 1986 Mustang GT 5.0 2000 Windstar LX