srsly

hydrogen on demand

Joe sent me a link to this article about a team at Purdue that’s found a way to create hydrogen on demand eliminating two of the major hurdles for it to be used as fuel (storage and transportation). in a nutshell it’s made by oxidizing aluminum and stopping the reaction that usually stops oxidation by the inclusion of gallium. the price to create it is comparable to current gas prices and all the materials are recyclable. the only issue, and the first hurdle, is that you need a power plant to generate power solely for the recycling process. the idea would be a remote nuclear plant that isn’t connected to another power grid, because apparently this is cheaper. there would need to be infrastructure for delivery built up to accommodate that but it couldn’t be any worse than current gasoline transport…

i still think that electric cars are the way to go. these alternative burnables are the way to go. the reason i think this is because electricity seems to be the most renewable. it’s also able to deliver several hundred pounds of torque starting at zero(0) RPM as you’ll find at NEDRA. people won’t give up their sports cars any more than they’ll give up their SUVs. mileage and practicality of electric cars has come a long way since the GM EV1, and the next major production electric car from Tesla Motors is, holy cow, a sports car. not to mention the Chevy Volt (which is hideous but still electric). everyone knows we need to get off gasoline, and i think it’s a huge step that a big car company is getting behind it. especially since we have the worst fuel economy standards in the world.