Thread: running on hydrogen gas

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Sounds like the great "Potato bug Cure" to me---

The law of diminishing returns will get ya! It takes more energy to break the water down into hydrogen and oxygen than you get back by burning it. If it didn't you'd be well on the way to perpetual motion, and we all know where that gets you.

Originally Posted by brianrupnow

Sounds like the great "Potato bug Cure" to me---

I ain't a Canadian, Bran, but I am old enough to be aware of the famous "potato bug" scam!

The same cure supposedly worked on our big Texas Red Ants.

Jim

Do not get caught up in the effeciency of hydrogen,the purpose is to not pollute and use less oil.
Who cares if I have to put 150 gallons of water in it a day....or if 50 percent of energy generated goes back into re-generation............its water ...good cheap clean water.
Effeciency is a mute point when the fuel source is almost free and unlimited.......you can bet they will dole it out one gallon at a time{with a massive tax} ,not convert it on board like should be done.
Just keep in mind ,like i mentioned before ,there will be no one source as a replacement for gas ,it will be many different sources to replace the one.

"or if 50 percent of energy generated goes back into re-generation............its water ...good cheap clean water."

IF it were 50 percent of the energy generated! It is really right now, put in 100 energy units and get back 40 to 70 energy units....it is a net loss process using electrolysis.

Give me a dollar and I will give you back 50 cents...see how long you play that game!

Originally Posted by shawnlee28

Do not get caught up in the effeciency of hydrogen,the purpose is to not pollute and use less oil.
Who cares if I have to put 150 gallons of water in it a day....or if 50 percent of energy generated goes back into re-generation............its water ...good cheap clean water.
Effeciency is a mute point when the fuel source is almost free and unlimited.......you can bet they will dole it out one gallon at a time{with a massive tax} ,not convert it on board like should be done.
Just keep in mind ,like i mentioned before ,there will be no one source as a replacement for gas ,it will be many different sources to replace the one.

Shawnlee
It unfortunately isn't just water producing hydrogen right now. You need an alternate energy source to split the water molecule, like electricity or natural gas. It takes twice the amount of natural gas to make half the amount of hydrogen. To put it simpler, inorder to convert water to 20 gallons of hydrogen fuel, it would take approximately 40 gallons of natural gas to supply the energy to convert water to hydrogen.
California was promoting Hydrogen powered cars, because they are clean burning as you know. The problem was where do you get the hydrogen from and how much does it cost. a friend of mine works for the california energy commision. She was furious over the hydrogen hype, because it doesn't use less energy, it uses twice as much. If you just used 20 gallons of natural gas to drive with, you'd save 20 gallons of natural gas to drive the same distance as you would with hydrogen. People are working on using solar photovoltaic cells to make hydrogen fuel sources, but it is not very efficient(i.e. it costs more to produce the hydrogen, than to use traditional fuel sources. As gas goes up, alternative fuels will be more competitive, but unless technology leaps foward, we are going to be paying higher prices at the pumps, and cars like the Volkswagen Rabbit will be very popular again!

A neat bit of trivia....just recently, it was demonstrated that a particular solar cell design would output MORE energy than it took to make the solar cell....just recently!

Before that, a solar cell was a net energy loss over its life. The new designs are still in their infancy but they are coming. However, the new designs are still not to the point where it takes X energy to make them and they put out 10X the energy over their lifetime.

Think about it folks... "energy is neither created nor destroyed" Energy can only be converted from one form to another