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Hydrogen Vehicle Generates Its Own Fuel
An anonymous reader writes "Our friends at The Arizona Republic have the scoop: 'The truck is hydrogen-powered and creates its own fuel from solar energy and water, a technical feat that rivals the advanced technology being researched by major auto companies and universities. The four-cylinder engine is tuned to run on hydrogen, which is produced by a hand-built electrolysis system mounted in the bed.' You can also help this project."
Hydrogen will never be able to hold the power that petrochemicals (gas, diesel) are able to hold. And creating hydrogen costs energy and everytime you change the state of your energy (electricty to hydrogen, hydrogen to electricity, etc), you lose a lot (thermodynamics).
What we need are more efficent ways of burning our petrochemicals to get the most efficient energy out of them, as well as releasing the lowest amounts of pollutants while doing so. Or come up with an alternative source that has even more energy in it.
All of these hydrogen cars are like taking a step back to steam engines. It didn't work then, it isn't going to work now. We need steps forward, not backwards. If you are going to replace the internal combustion engine, you have to take a magnitude step forward, especially as we're not going to be running out of oil in anybody here's lifetime.
If yuo want the masses to adopt it, it has to be better. If you want people to manugacture it, the masses have to adopt it. These are like the battery cars, cute, looks good on the surface, but when you get down to brass tacks, a '64 buick still beats it.
If it is too dangerous to bike, it is probably too dangerous to drive also.
Wha-? Are you serious? Sidewalks covered with snowbanks, but roads are clear. Would you rather be on the slippery roads ona bicycle or in a car?
Why is there a ton of Slashdotters who just can't realize that not everyone wants to ride a friggin bike to work?
"Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge"
- Charles Darwin