permaculture

["Lee Flier" <lflier@mindspring.com>]

======= At 2003-06-17, 08:40:00 Robyn wrote: =======


>1. Hydrogen fuel in the form of 'Brown's Gas' simply involves a 10v battery
>charge to separate hydrogen from water - a very efficient fuel source - i

Right.  And the energy to charge the battery comes from... where?  There's 
the rub.  It takes several times the energy to extract hydrogen from water, 
than the hydrogen will provide.  The only thing that switching to hydrogen 
power does is remove pollution from the point source and hide it at the point 
of manufacture.  Currently, most hydrogen fuel cells are NOT being made from 
water, the hydrogen is extracted from natural gas which is much more 
efficient than extracting it from water.  Yet, of course, it would be much 
more efficient to simply burn the natural gas.

Sorry but there is no free lunch, and the hydrogen hypers are spreading a 
dangerous myth.  In fact, the fossil fuel and nuclear power companies are in 
on the myth, because as of right now the only way to make hydrogen workable 
as a fuel is to use natural gas, oil and coal plants and/or nuclear power to 
extract and purify the hydrogen.  Hydrogen cells are useful in some 
applications, but NOT as a way to replace conventional fuel.

--Lee

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