Total Posts:2|Showing Posts:1-2
Jump to topic:

Fuel cell autos in production

Posts: 4,488
Add as Friend
Challenge to a Debate
Send a Message
8/6/2013 6:28:58 AM
Posted: 3 years ago
Hyundai has started production of a fuel cell vehicle predicts they will be cost competitive with conventional combustion-engined cars within ten years.

Other than cost, the problem is getting filling stations that will pump hydrogen for the cars. Performance in range and power is comparable to current small cars. The only emission is water, so they will probably find favor initially in dense urban areas.

From the standpoint of pollution, electric cars are pretty much a fraud. Electric cars have no emissions, but the emissions problem is moved to the electric power generation. Beyond that, the process of manufacturing the batteries is laden with toxic stuff and very high energy consumption. A survey articles in IEEE Spectrum lays out the total impact. The author points out that even if the electricity were generated by solar cells, there are big problems.

Even if that were possible to do on a large scale, manufacturing the vast number of photovoltaic cells required would have venomous side effects. Solar cells contain heavy metals, and their manufacturing releases greenhouse gases such as sulfur hexafluoride, which has 23 000 times as much global warming potential as CO2, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. What"s more, fossil fuels are burned in the extraction of the raw materials needed to make solar cells and wind turbines"and for their fabrication, assembly, and maintenance. The same is true for the redundant backup power plants they require. And even more fossil fuel is burned when all this equipment is decommissioned. Electric-car proponents eagerly embrace renewable energy as a scheme to power their machines, but they conveniently ignore the associated environmental repercussions.

Fuel cell cars run on hydrogen, but where will the hydrogen come from? Hydrogen can be obtained by electrolysis of water, but that's inefficient. Hydrogen is used in many industrial processes, so producing it is a $100 billion industry. The most efficient method is to extract hydrogen from natural gas using steam. CO2 is a byproduct of that process.

I think if you really really hate CO2, you had better learn to love nuclear power generation.