Posted by Sherman in Idaho [72.47.153.28] on Wednesday, June 11, 2014 at 17:45:49 :
In Reply to: Agree: Unworkable posted by gmharris [72.219.148.98] on Wednesday, June 11, 2014 at 15:21:34 :
Today, commercial hydrogen is made from natural gas. The carbon content in the natural gas is largely wasted powering the conversion process. Once the hydrogen is extracted from the methane, it's even harder to store and handle than the original methane would have been. Furthermore, burning an atom of hydrogen releases less energy than burning an atom of carbon.
So, what a "hydrogen-powered" care really is is an extremely inefficient natural-gas car. The difference is most of the inefficiency is moved from the car to the gas plant so it's harder to see.
Yes, theoretically hydrogen can be made by electrolyzing water, but such hydrogen is way too expensive for practical use, and at that point all you have is an extremely inefficient electric car.
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