[ausev] hydrogen efficiency

[Ian Ward]

I agree with your points, as well, Gil. There are some places I just can't
see batteries working. I'm not totally against H2/fuel cells, but I do think
that their promise to be disruptive in the short-term has been greatly
oversold to the detriment of feasible battery-based solutions.

There is another point to keep in mind, as well. The technologies are all in
motion, never standing still. Cellulosic ethanol looks like it may be a
decent hydrogen production means and other compounds that avoid
high-pressure storage are being refined with regular improvements. There is
still the infrastructure issue, however. There is a lot of money going into
battery research right now and we also have a local company working on
potentially amazing capacitors.

Cheers,
ian

On Mon, Jun 2, 2008 at 10:25 AM, Gil Dawson <Gil at gil.dawson.name> wrote:

> At 3:36 A -0500 6/2/08, Ian Ward wrote:
> >I think the spirit of the AUSEV mailing list charter is specific to
> >Austin area topics, but otherwise this is (IMO) a fairly valid topic
> >-
>
> Ian--
>
> I absolutely agree with everything in your message -- for cars.
>
> However, fuel cells may have a long-range place in our future -- in
> airplanes.  Not because of efficiency, but because of weight.
>
> An experimental airplane using solar cells -> hydrolysis -> fuel
> cells -> propeller was flown for THIRTY DAYS over Hawaii a couple of
> years ago.  They chose hydrolysis over batteries to fly at night
> becuse the components weighed less.
>
> This airplane was made by AeroVironment, headed by Paul MacCready
> (1925-2007), who also made the first human-powered aircrft to pass
> certain tests: the Gossamer Condor (one mile figure 8) and Gossamer
> Albatross (English Channel).  It made the front page of the LA Times
> at the time, and was described in detail on their website.  Details
> have been taken down, because now they're selling this technology to
> the military.  You can still see some footprints, though, if you
> search for "fuel cell" on the current website
> "http://www.avinc.com/".  They advertise planes that can stay
> overhead for nine days.  Not a record, but then not jet fuel, either.
>
> Another place fuel cells may survive in the long run is interstate
> trucking.
>
> But right now, and for cars, you have expressed the arguments well, IMHO.
>
> --Gil
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