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Originally Posted by Chate
in that same episode they did a bit on the honda fuel cell vehicle, it was also pretty cool.
one of you guys probably can help me with this, the extraction of H from environment involves some pretty intense reactions- how is it typically done and how is it so cheap? i could google it, but i'm the middle of finals and its easier to just ask
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Electrolysis. At this point you're probably scratching your head wondering how it is that you use electricity to create an energy source that you use to make electricity and come out ahead. Well, it's the same kind of reasoning that makes ethanol an energy plus and not a boondoggle.
Actually I'm half joking, the advantage of course is density of energy storage. You can store a lot more H in a compact space and turn it into far more electricity than you could store electricity in a battery of comparable size/weight.
If you use Solar to make your Hydrogen from water, well it ain't so bad. In fact there are some plans for house electrical systems that use solar panels during the day and use excess current to extract H from water and store it, precisely for use in a fuel cell to create electricity at night. Poof, 24 hour solar power by proxy.
Of course the Holy Grail is to get beyond the stone age of "batteries". We need some serious leaps there. Then we can focus on variegated methods of producing this high-tech energy source and use/store according to needs. This will also help get the hippie-tree-huggers off my precious dinosaur juice so I can use it for far more important things than mere transportation.
TopGear tests the Tesla
