NEWS: Truckers Choose Hydrogen Power

CULTURE: Truckers Choose Hydrogen Power

Wired News is reporting that hundreds of semi trucks now on the roads are being partially powered by hydrogen. From the article:

This is awesome news!

It is about time somebody started taking hydrogen seriously!

And I've noticed that diesel is not coming down at the same rate as regular gasoline. So they need it. Good on them.

I am impressed with the innovative technology...hydrogen on the fly.

The biggest problem with hydrogen fuel cells as a current alternative is that once you consider the environmental costs of manufacture and shipment of hydrogen, hydrogen fuel cells cause greater harm to the environment per mile driven than gasoline does.

I like the idea of using the HFI as a transition fuel for California, as mentioned in the article...

However, I think the focus should be on gasoline powered vehicles, not diesel. Although diesel exhaust is so much smokier and “ickier” looking than gas emissions, it actually contains fewer environmentally harmful particles per gallon burned than does the invisible emissions in gasoline. You can just see it better.

Because it burns slower... i wanna see cars come out that use a mixture of pure oxygen and acetaline to fuel them 800 HP 4 cylinder hehe

Excellant.

for anyone who disent know what acetaline is its the gas used in torch cutting, its one of the most... if not the most flamable gas known to man.... you can spray it into an open plasic coke bottle, ignite it and it will go at least 50 feet with a deafening explosion.... yea im a pyro... sue me

Acetylene would be kick ass for tweaking, but considering it requires coal and calcium carbonate to manufacture, it's not very energy efficient. Plus it leaves heaps of carbon monoxide behind (and it's not as though the world needs more calcium hydroxide). I doubt a good fuel cell could be made from it (short bursts of it, though, could work).

yea im a scientist... sue me

Hmm... wouldn't that kinda destroy an engine block? I mean, you'll get a good explosion from the sparked fuel mixture, but wouldn't that cause your car, and probably you as well, to not run anymore?

While interesting, these are hardly revolutionary results and the high price tag/low benefit will limit the market for these things. It's good to see the effort, though.

Keep in mind that this is not the same Hydrogen solution we will be seeing as consumers. HFI is actually burning hydrogen, what we will see is hydrogen fuel cells - where hydrogen basically acts as part of a battery system to create energy, which then powers electric motors.

Now you marry me. I bring torch.

Haha i wasnt really considering that as a viable solution, i just want a car that runs on it... im completley convinced a 1.4 liter 4cylinder that runs on that mixture would have 400+ horsepower

However, technically, the production of hydrogen (with the exception of the HFI solution under discussion) ALSO requires coal and other fossil fuels to create (since it requires electricity to be made, the majority of which is still made by coal and oil...as well as truck burning gas and diesel for transport.)

Yea...I’m a cynic. Sue me :-)

...till your rings burn out :-)

[Edited on Nov 17, 2005 by BurningKrome]

It's certainly interesting news, but it isn't the answer to energy problems.

Moving things around via an interstate system in 18 wheelers is extremely inefficient, regardless of how you power them. Trains and denser population centers are a better option, coupled with more local production of goods as possible.

Alternately, teleporters powered by unicorns running on treadmills.

Damn, it's like everytime there is good news people always have to find a way to ruin it. Quit complaining about what they SHOULD be doing because it's a step in the right direction.

What good news?

Finding moderately more efficient means to prop up an ill-conceived, inefficient system?

Um yeah. As I said, it's a step in the right direction. What would rather have? Solar powered trucks. Yeah, good luck with that. Electric? Yeah, I may be behind on the tech news with electric motors, but last I checked they can't produce the torque needed.

well yea.
Alternative fuels won't become popular unless they offer something traditional fuel doesn't. higer horsepower and better fuel economy are important reasons to give it a go... espically for the big rigs who put a hell of a lot more miles on the road than you or I do in our little fourwheel cars.

In response to the comment above me, cities and production lines are already set. You won't change them. it would take years to kick up even the inertia needed to start the change in the pattern of thought that went into their design which would then change the design of the city.
As a result, you do what you can, put into use the train system, which holds the best fuel economy of all transport systems but have tracks that are badly in need of repair and still rely on large transport trucks to get your goods from point a to point b. This country's economy rely on major retailers to keep it's people employed and cash flowing.

I think this is a superb idea, both for the consumer and the environment.

The problem with alternative fuels is that they are not widely available. For example LPG. In the UK there are only about 1250 stations which sell these. I would be worried about running out.

Whereas this HFI idea, you have got this problem. It would just make my car work more efficiently, saving me money and producing less emissions for the same amount of mileage I drive.

Even if we assume that scientists and engineers are able to address all of the obstacles to using hydrogen as a primary fuel, there's another issue to be addressed - building an infrastructure for the production and transportation of hydrogen fuel. This will include, of course, the investment in the alternate energy sources that we need to produce electricity for hydrogen fuel, since producing hydrogen via electrolysis is the only way that addresses the fossil fuel issue.

How we choose to build this infrastructure will play a huge role in determining the shape of our society in the future.

I think it's pathetic how we spend our dollars on internal issues in this country; that so little attention is paid to our infrastructure, aside from huge capital investments in expanding highways to accomodate more urban sprawl and repairing highways because we insist on shipping via long-haul trucking rather than using trains and shorter, smaller trucking operations at hubs.

I also think that a broad, rational energy policy will not only address where we get our fuel from, but how we're spending it. Energy consumed by transportation outstrips home and commercial uses, and is projected to be gaining on industrial use and on par with it in 20 years. Steps that we could take to reduce that use would be very desirable. As for such a thing taking years - the time frame for a transition to hydrogen is on the order of several decades, according to the most reasonable estimates I've read. It's not something that's going to happen in the next 5 years.

And, back to the technology at hand: I'm perhaps too quick to crap all over it. It does reduce toxic emissions from the burning of fossil fuels and increased efficiency in any system is good in my opinion. But the thing to remember about this technology is that it isn't a long-term solution and really isn't even an intermediate step to a different solution to replace fossil fuels. It's a step that at best may extend the lifespan of the available fossil fuel and help slow down increasing demand.