With some suitable technology or chemistry to store hydrogen on-board, fuel cells could eventually replace the combustion engine that recharges the nickel-metal-hydride battery pack in hybrid-electric cars... If solar-electric power is used to extract hydrogen from water, there will be no more need for big central power plants and filling stations. We will decommission the nuclear power plants, shut down the strip mines, and scrap the offshore oil wells. Silicon and hydrogen will completely displace uranium and carbon.
—Peter Huber, The Bottomless Well
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Wouldn't it be wonderful to have incalculable amounts of hydrogen from salt water to power the world? Won't oil prices at $100 or $200 per barrel spur on the research? And wasn't the hydrogen motor a feature of one of Mr Bush's speeches, long ago?
Where's the Thomas Edison of hydrogen power?
Posted by: a Duoist | 01 October 2007 at 02:39
Tom-
I think you have taken this quote out of context. I do not recall Huber and Mills being overly optimistic about hydrogen. This quote makes it seem like H&M think hydrogen power plants are right around the corner, when I don't think that's what they said, but I will have to break out my copy and double check.
Posted by: Don | 01 October 2007 at 11:34
My apologies...Steve. I mistook you for another blogger.
Posted by: Don | 01 October 2007 at 11:36
Don:
I got it from p.87, Ch.5, a chapter that was exploring several possibilities for "fueling the silicon car."
Posted by: Steve | 01 October 2007 at 13:40
Prof. Jerry Woodall, Purdue University is in the process of "perfecting hydrogen-generating technology". Alloy of 80% Al and 20% Ga reacts with water to form Al02 and H2. The Al can be recovered from the aluminum oxide. The gallium is inert. Link is:
http://news.uns.purdue.edu/x/2007b/070827WoodallNanotech.html
Posted by: Dennis (PU '68) | 01 October 2007 at 23:33
nothing like comparing wholesale cost of using AL ,vs the retail price of gasoline
"Using aluminum, it would cost $70 at wholesale prices to take a 350-mile trip with a mid-size car equipped with a standard internal combustion engine. That compares with $66 for gasoline at $3.30 per gallon. ""
you also see these wholesale/retail comparisons with windmills and solar panels
Posted by: embutler | 02 October 2007 at 18:09
embutler,
You're right. Waste of time. Tilting at windmills. Nothing new under the sun!
Posted by: Dennis (PU '68) | 02 October 2007 at 21:58