Originally posted by phil:
<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.



He pours the water in and using electricity is able to get the hydrogen is the jist of it, I think. Who says that original electricity has to come from fossil fuels? And nowhere did it state that the input energy eclipsed the output, unless you have evidence otherwise. If that WERE true why in the hell would congress invite him to demonstrate his process for them?

99 Silver CSVT