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Critics say that fuel cells are fool cells and they claim that it
takes too much energy to liberate hydrogen.
Fuel cells are more efficient than internal combustion engines
making up for some of the energy that is lost to acquire the hydrogen
where refining oil to produce gasoline and diesel happens to be energy
intensive also.
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Chemical batteries...
Lithium ION batteries currently being the most
popular battery chemistry lately, are heavy and their energy
density is limited. Lithium ION batteries are a 4k degree
fahrenheit fire hazard. Worse, it takes hours to charge a
Lithium ION battery that is big enough to propel a car for
even 40 miles. If chemical batteries are so efficient,
the space they take up, their weight, and the time it takes
to charge them are major problems.
What do you do with all the batteries when they wear
out? Lithium is limited where there will very likely be
shortages within 10 years time. If the energy a battery
is charged with isn't produced in an environmentally
friendly way, it could be better to do gasoline
or diesel combustion instead of Lithium ION electric,
environmentally speaking. Ethanol isn't currently made in
a way that facilitates reducing emissions and cellulosic
ethanol isn't here. Alcohols tend to draw water whether
ethanol or methanol. For combustion not necessarily great.
For a fuel cell though, it may be beneficial.
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Hydrogen is used to remove sulfur from oil that is
being refined into gasoline. Hydrogen is also used to produce
fertilizer. Hydrogen has been handled safely for at least three
centuries.
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Fuel cells are already lasting for 50k miles with new ones being
more durable. Platinum electrodes are being replaced by less expensive
carbon electrodes and other alloy electrodes, nickel iron cobalt for
example. Cobalt boride and ammonia borane together can be used to
release hydrogen on demand cheaply. Current production hydrogen fuel
cell cars with 5k and 10k PSI hydrogen tanks are able to travel 200
to 500+ miles on a single fill. These high pressure tanks scare
people, but they are safe.
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Solar to hydrogen technology is progressing rapidly, especially when
salt water is the source of the hydrogen. The salt acts as a catalyst.
The process to strip hydrogen from methane is 80% efficient and releases
significatly fewer green house gases than burning gasoline or diesel.
Nuclear reactors that thermally crack water are an option. A man who
worked on the Apollo missions has suggested that a fleet of nuclear
powered ships crack sea water far from population centers and come
into port when they are full. There is the possibility of hydrogen
from algae which is mentioned at Clean-air.org. Hydrogen can come
from biofuels which are carbon neutral.
There are a growing number of ways to procure hydrogen, some
more efficient than others with a growing number being greenhouse
gas emission free.
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Consider, it takes 300 billion gallons of water to refine all
the gasoline that all the light duty vehicles in the U.S. use where
it would take 100 billion gallons of water to collect enough hydrogen
via electrolysis for those vehicles if they were converted to be fuel
cell vehicles.
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Oil rivaling what is available in the Middle East has been
discovered inside the United States, but burning this OIL
releases GHGs and may accelerate the greenhouse effect dangerously.
Water shortages, higher seas, draughts, and more intense storms are
potential consequences of accelerating the greenhouse effect.
Accelerated climate change is real and besides this, Oil is
valuable for more than just fuel. Many computer/electronic
devices/products contain plastic which is typically made from OIL.
In short, buring Oil needlessly is both wasteful and harmful to
the environment.
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