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Hydrogen Buses In Iceland
dapyx writes "As part of the shift away from the fossil fuels, Iceland began its switch to hydrogen-powered buses, which are now used on the streets of the capital, Reykjavik. About 70 percent of Iceland's energy is already met by green power. Iceland plans to become the first oil-free country by 2050."
"Iceland plans to become the first oil-free country by 2050." Wow. That's impressive. So they're not going to use any products made from plastic, or oil-based paints, lubricants, etc?
True enough, but Iceland is unique in having ready access to more geothermal energy than they'll ever need. Not renewable, yes, but there's more of it around than they'll ever need, and it doesn't significantly contribute to CO2 levels.
Yeah, it blew up just like an truck carrying gasoline would. Are you seriously trying to argue that hydrogen is not a good alternative fuel supply because a long time ago people decided to fill a huge balloon with it that had an extremely flammable outer skin while there was lighting shooting down from the sky?
If this country (USA) wants to get off its coal, natural gas, and petroleum dependency, it has to build new nuclear power plants to power homes and use that to generate hydrogen to power vehicles. No new nuclear power plant has been built since the Three Mile Island incident, which similar to Chernobyl, was a combination of untrained workers and poor design.
It's not a popular idea around here, but huge amounts of greenhouse gas and radiation could be saved from entering out atmosphere if we used more nuclear power.
Apart from the fact that the parent was trolling, I think it would be best described as "Every single time it is repudiated with a mixture of treating a widely controversial theory about the skin as if it's fact and a bunch of inaccurate statements about hydrogen chemistry and gasoline chemistry"....
I mean, seriously people:
1) Hydrogen *does* explode far more readily than gasoline. That's why it is the fuel of choice for deflagration to detonation transition experiments. That doesn't mean that everything with hydrogen is a waiting timebomb, but it is a fact that hydrogen is a relatively easy substance to detonate.
2) The cause of the Hindenburg fire is still unknown, but it is *not* an open and shut case that the skin was the cause; there are a number of refutations out there for that theory which show that the skin, in fact, was not that flammable. Additionally, clearly on video, the hydrogen is burning; however, thanks to the properties of hydrogen, the flame tended to be carried up and away from the passengers. Also, thanks to the poor mixing and low pressure, it was a high intensity deflagration, not a detonation.
3) Gasoline does not explode in the vast majority of situations (hydrogen and propane - gasses at STP - are much greater deflagration and detonation risks). Now, gasoline will burn hot and for long periods of time, which is it's own risk - but life isn't a hollywood movie where cars explode at the drop of a hat.
4) Hydrogen is not this low-risk substance that you portray it as; if you don't believe me, read a manual of guidelines on how to deal with hydrogen some time. Hydrogen causes embrittlement of metals, collects under overhangs (and has been responsible for blowing many roofs off at research facilities), burns hot and invisible, leaks out of far smaller pinholes than other materials, tends to flow through plumbing if it leaks underground, and all sorts of other stuff that you don't want to happen.
This doesn't mean that it can't be dealt with! But it's not some wondrously safe substance, either.
We're practicing our labials.
sabinm so succinctly puts it "I don't understand"
/.
As someone living with an islandur, and having worked in Iceland a few times, there is a lot of 21st century products they can export. Knowledge, information, and beautiful women (and guys, supposedly, I'm no judge).
Iceland has an amazing internet infrastructure and very cheap electricity. I'm always astounded when I visit, because everyone leaves the heat (100% electric) turned up 24 hours/day, leaves their computers on all the time, have broadband and use it as much as I do. Their electricity is about 3% the price of what I pay at home, basically close to free. If you live with an Icelander, its a constant battle to get her to turn off lights when leaving the room, keep the heat at a reasonable level and turn it down at night.
On top of extremely cheap energy, they have good schools, excellent health care, and a standard of living supposedly the best in Europe (couldn't possibly be, beer is too expensive). The only downside is the constant rain and occasional snow. With fish stocks in the north atlantic dwindling, they are turning their skills towards information, the petroleum of the 21st century. Reverse engineering and process improvement are becoming their stock in trade, and slowly they are coming around to the idea they have to train up their young people to the highest level possible in fields like Information Science. The biggest problem is that when they send their young people to universities in Europe and America, there is a tendancy to stay abroad. They return when starting a family to take advantage of the social safety net that doesn't exist in places like America.
Don't discount Iceland, they do have a political will to make significant changes, and a per capita GDP to make it happen.
the AC
I can't believe I'm defending Iceland on
Hemos is like...sci-fi fans;he thinks technology is cool, but he hasn't bothered to understand the science it's based on