--- Tony Smith <azimuth@rivernet.com.au> wrote:

> How far would those cars go if you just ran electrics motors instead
> of
> buggering about with hydrogen?  Considering Edison (yeah, the light
> bulb
> guy) was building electric cars way back when, I'd wager they'd do
> quite
> well these days.
> 
> Those people making hydrogen in vehicles by cracking water are nuts.
> Starting with water is the waste product from burning hydrogen (ash
> if you
> like), it somehow has more energy than you need to crack it?  How's
> that
> work?  What, it didn't burn properly the first time?
> 
> BTW, good job getting an 'evil oil company' story in early  :)
> 
> Tony

You can't that's the real problem the reaction will not yield as much
energy as put in.  It's the same with aluminum fuel cells (although you
don't have to run a reaction that yields 95% possible hydrogen that
burns at 80% efficiency I'll have to get my old fuel cell books out). 
This is silly and extremely expensive.  Gallium has a serious toxicity
issue too. (LOL)  You have to have energy from someplace, burning
aluminum you can 'recycle' efficiently to use the by product to use
efficiently doesn't make things efficient.

And yes electric cars have been around a long time. These days motor
efficiency above 35hp is quite high (97%).  Thank goodness for new
inverter design (DC motors aren't as efficient in propulsion as AC,
BLDC has limited low speed torque and start up issues AC vector drive
motor systems are the best all around solution but not cheap).

Stephen


       
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