Occam,
On that site you can read the transcript. It’s not as entertainng without the visuals, but will give you a good idea how some of these non-polluting methods work. The introduction may seem confused without the visuals, but past that the presentation is well narrated and also provides a description of the visual presentation.

For instance, chicken feathers (a waste product from one of the biggest industries) can be used for trapping hydrogen. When treated with heat, the feathers leave a mush of “nano ports” where hydrogen can be stored without the need for high pressure charging. Hydrogen is a completely pollution free fuel. The waste is pure water vapor.

Jay Leno (actually very knowledgeable on cars and engines) observed that there is nothing wrong with the concept of the combustion engine. We are just using the wrong fuels.

Then, one the greatest energy waste producers is our distribution network (eletrical grid) which is terribly inefficient and cannot store excess energy (during low usage). They are now looking at ways of capturing and storing excess energy. Potentially old smelters can be used as giant batteries.

I thought that was basically how hybrid worked.

Please show me how Hydrogen is a fuel !  I seem to remember reading somewhere that it requires four units of energy input to produce one unit of energy output…..poor choice for a battery….terrible for a fuel source

sine dues - 10 October 2012 07:39 AM

Please show me how Hydrogen is a fuel !  I seem to remember reading somewhere that it requires four units of energy input to produce one unit of energy output…..poor choice for a battery….terrible for a fuel source

check this out,

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/tech/making-stuff.html#making-stuff-cleaner

Because of the Second Law of Thermodynamics it turns out that we can’t do anything to break even.  It would take more energy to generate hydrogen than it would deliver when used as a fuel, so we have to figure out where or how to get the energy for input.  Ultimately, it all comes from the sun (except for nuclear).  Petroleum and coal are from plants that captured sun energy eons ago.  If we use solar cells that produce electricity, then use that to convert water to oxygen and hydrogen, and finally use the hydrogen as a fuel, it will cost more sun energy that we get out of the hydrogen, but so what?  That happens no matter what we do.

Occam

And there is the problem of extracting and refining oil. If we considere the costs of testing, drilling, transportation, refining, and redistribution of oil products, the costs v utiliy become staggering and as the oil resources run out (70 years) the costs will become prohibitive. And using oil in combustion engines is inefficient (80%) and pollutes!!
OTOH hydrogen is an inexhaustible resource, is readily available everywhere on earth and is clean!!!

Write4you- show me where you get your evidence for fossil fuels running out in seventy years….hahaha… honestly !
Hydrogen does not have the energy density to be useful in anything but a subsidy choked gee-whiz experiment. Everybody goes all gooey when you hold a glass up to the exhaust and then….wow just water….oooh this is soooo green.

They’ve been saying fossil fuels are going to run out in A) 30, B) 50, C) 70, D) choose your own number of years for decades now.  Of course, we keep finding new sources of them and figuring out how to squeeze more mileage out of what we have so whatever.

sine dues - 11 October 2012 05:58 AM

Write4you- show me where you get your evidence for fossil fuels running out in seventy years….hahaha… honestly !
Hydrogen does not have the energy density to be useful in anything but a subsidy choked gee-whiz experiment. Everybody goes all gooey when you hold a glass up to the exhaust and then….wow just water….oooh this is soooo green.

You better learn about the “exponential function”.

Listen to the entire presentation, it will surprise you.

http://www.albartlett.org/presentations/arithmetic_population_energy_video1.html

and confirming evidence here,

http://www.worldometers.info/

and if you want to talk about hydrogen, you may want to have a look at this,

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/tech/making-stuff.html#making-stuff-cleaner

Thank-you for the links Writ4u, very good info. When people are capable of using mathematics in debates or arguments it makes easier to understand. There are some points in the Professors videos that I don’t agree with but I would not try to argue them here due to my ignorance….I’m used to my own ignorance but I hate show it off and to be proud of it !