Hydrogen; The Fuel Of Tomorrow

We are in the throes of peak oil prices, if not fully there yet, we are suffering the same effects where fossil fuel is so much in demand that it, as I write, is US $92 a barrel. We see the effects at the fuel pumps when we fill our cars and in the cost of things that have to be transported from near and far. For those who have not read earlier articles or who do not know about 'peak oil', it is when demand exceeds supply and with the current Chinese and Indian demand for their growing economies, we are in the first stages of being in trouble. Just imagine that the beautiful new Range Rover Sports that you have just bought can only be used for three days a week due to fuel rationing and the maximum speed limit anywhere in Europe is 80 kph (50 mph). Impossible you might think, but those of us who have more than a few kilometres under our seats can remember the days of the tripling of the oil price in 1973-4 when that is just what happened in the UK and elsewhere. And when I first when to South Africa in 1976, a vast country with a popular and necessary trip from one large city to another, Johannesburg to Durban, any speed anywhere was not allowed over 80 kph, nor were you allowed to carry fuel in the boot because the service stations closed at 7.00pm on a Friday and opened again at 7.00am on a Monday due to the sanctions imposed by the rest of the free world, but South Africa survived with its 40 percent of the nation's oil being made from local coal and its oil imports made by the sanctions-busting Iranians. But I digress. How would you like the following? You get home from work and have your dinner. Then you go to your garage and refuel the car or motorcycle from your own little manufacturing plant which is the size of a large refrigerator? What do you refuel it with? Hydrogen, of course, made from water and electricity that you have in abundance on the premises. I know that there are other considerations, one being that hydrogen is highly inflammable as petrol is, but these can be overcome because we human beings are damned clever, well most of us anyway.
For an informative explanation of this liquid gas that is going to save the planet, go to: www.eia.doe.gov/kids/energyfacts/sources/IntermediateHydrogen.html Already it is being used in vehicles, mainly in the USA where it is in its infancy as oil is still cheap enough: for now. Hydrogen is already being used to power and heat outlandish establishments in the USA in national parks where it is impracticable to run power lines to the buildings and as an emergency power supply in hospitals, etc. The problem at this time is that there are not enough outlets for people to buy the stuff, as well as the need for education of users in the safe handling of it. Those who can remember the Hindenburg airship disaster in the USA in 1938 where the hydrogen filled aircraft caught fire and was destroyed in a few minutes, hydrogen is not to be disrespected, but then if it did not burn, it would not be useful as a fuel. It also needs fuel cells in vehicles, homes, and offices, etc. to convert the hydrogen to the electricity that powers electric motors for the wheels and any other normal car devices, and the fuel cells are expensive to make but so are car engines and transmissions. Mass production will take care of that, and the only exhaust will be pure water that is drinkable. The international space station uses hydrogen to power the station's needs and the exhaust water is drunk by the astronauts. So what is holding us up? As I have said before hydrogen is made using water and heat, either steam or electricity, and European countries have at this time too many power stations that rely on either imported gas or fossil fuels. France is one of the sensible nations with 56 nuclear stations producing 76 percent of France's electrical needs. We have some nuclear power stations in the rest of Europe but not enough, so we need to build more, which takes time.
But the benefits are multiple. Just imagine that in addition to becoming rich beyond our wildest dreams because we are not paying some other countries vast amounts of our hard earned cash for a product that we not only showed them how to get it out of the ground, but even went there and did it for them, we would have electricity to use on other advancements such as inexpensive public transport. Not only are we solving the so-called carbon footprint problem, we are in a position to install such means of travel as the new, but workable electric magnetic levitation trains that are already in use in other countries such as Germany, Japan and China (yes, China). These are far safer than wheeled trains, much faster and smoother with much less maintenance, which means lower running costs and cheaper fares. In China, the train takes passengers 30 km (18.6 miles) from Shanghai to the airport in just over 7 minutes at an average speed of 250 kph (150 mph). Work is still being done to reduce manufacturing costs, but that is typical of all new ideas. We can all do it. With vacuum tunnels for the trains to run in, speeds of 3,000 kph are possible making flying, except over large expanses of water, obsolete as aircraft would be too slow. Britain in the 19th Century showed the world how to do just about everything with engineering and there was more engineering production supplying the world than in the rest of the world put together. It needs brave engineers backed by supportive governments and with the combined efforts of all the EU states, it can be done. All we have to do is get our youngster's minds off celebrities who produce noise and very poor social examples for our young and start celebrating and cheering on the engineers again, make them the heroes just as we have done with the new Airbus 380, the largest airplane ever made - and it was made in Europe.