Hydrogen...
Until my corner Chevron install a hydrogen pump, I don't see this really going anywhere...
Yes, it can be done. It's
being done. CA has some hydrogen stations.
But...
As a potential hydrogen-powered-car driver, I would have to think, it's not just
my cost of driving... it's also my, for lack of a better term, "carbon footprint." How much energy does it take to make enough hydrogen to power a car?
All the way through the cycle? I mean, take hydrogen, one of the most reactive elements in the universe, meaning it readily and enthusiastically binds with other elements, and for us to use hydrogen, we must separate it from whatever it's bound itself. And
that takes energy.
Lots of it. From where does this energy appear, how much is needed, and at what cost? Can you pipe hydrogen, or must it be stored and transported? When you store it, do you need some other energy to keep it from binding to other molecules? What fuel are those transporters burning to transport said hydrogen? Can someone,
anyone, give me or anyone else a straight answer about a hydrogen infrastructure cost to rival gasoline delivery?
[crickets]
Ah. Thought so.
Some of my engineer friends say, because of the above hurdles, it will be a loooooong time before we zip around in hydrogen-powered cars. And I tend to have a great deal of respect for engineers: They do what you and I can do, but elegantly. Better.
Barely. And I don't mean barely in a derogatory sense.
If you need to cross a river,
anyone can build a bridge, since if you toss enough manpower and money and materials at it, a bridge is a crude device that is easily manufactured. It takes an engineer, however, to understand the big picture, including lifespan, budget, revenue if applicable, usage, tonnage expected, possible environmental risks, etc., so he or she can make the bridge
only as strong, durable, cheaply, safely, and elegantly as possible and needed (ergo, "barely"), without breaking a sweat.
Those CA hydrogen stations... I just wonder if people will
buy (OK, OK,
lease) hydrogen cars at
any monthly cost if they have to drive waaaay out of their way to fill up. A 200 mile range is useless if the station is 25-30-35 miles away from your haunts... methinks this is one experiment that's doomed to failure. I have been wrong before (not often, he said arrogantly) so I'll wait and see... but I just don't see a lot of Claritys outside of the Ed Begley Jr. neighborhoods...
Re: Anyone in CA getting a Honda Clarity?
