XPost: rec.arts.sf.written, rec.arts.sf.science   
   From: seawasp@sgeinc.invalid.com   
      
   On 1/14/14 3:32 PM, Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor) wrote:   
   > On 1/14/14 3:22 PM, Your Name wrote:   
   >   
   >> Electric cars powered by plugging them into a socket will never really   
   >> be a workable option for most people.   
   >   
   >      Especially if you want to recharge them FAST, as you're then   
   > requiring wattage that no ordinary residential neighborhood could manage   
   > to handle. Overnight works for commuters. Not sure how the energy costs   
   > work out.   
   >   
   >   
   >> That's why most manufacturers are   
   >> already moving towards hydrogen powered cars, which are a much more   
   >> senisible option since they are refuelled quickly in the same basic   
   >> manner as a petrol / diesel vehicle. It is also much easier to change   
   >> petrol / diesel pumps over time to be pumps for hydrogen car refuelling   
   >> or add more pumps.   
   >>   
   >   
   >      Hydrogen's a terrible choice at the moment. You need to   
   > (inefficiently) use electricity to generate it,   
      
   	Or you have to chemically process something else, like methane, to get   
   it. Fuel cells are easily poisoned, too, so using those can be a problem.   
      
   > then you need either   
   > SUPER high pressure storage for it (which means that even leaving   
   > combustibility aside, it's a bomb) or some of the   
   > somewhat-less-high-pressure absorptive materials which reduce its energy   
   > density effectively. It leaks easily (tiny molecule), requires   
   > high-pressure transfer, and it's not THAT easy to convert "dump liquid   
   > down a hole" storage and fill-up machinery to "send highly compressed   
   > gas into a compressed gas tank".   
      
   	I'll add that while hydrogen is somewhat safer in open air as it tends   
   to make a straight-up flame if the vessel is punctured (though you   
   REALLY don't want to be in line with that flame!), in even vaguely   
   enclosed areas it's really nasty. Most gases/vapors have a fairly narrow   
   explosive mix range with air -- a few percent, maybe 10-20% wide at most.   
      
   	Hydrogen goes from 4% to 75% mix.So if you get a hydrogen leak inside,   
   you're in real danger of a big boom.   
      
      
   >   
   >      If you're gonna use electricity to manufacture your fuel, why not   
   > manufacture gasoline? We already have the infrastructure to store and   
   > transport it, we're intimately familiar with its hazards and how to   
   > control them, it's got awesome energy density, and you don't have to   
   > convert 250 million cars over in order to use it.   
   >   
   >      Just build a bunch more generating stations. Preferably nuclear,   
   > maybe thorium cycle if they get the bugs out.   
   >   
   >   
   >   
      
      
   --   
                         Sea Wasp   
                           /^\   
                           ;;;	   
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