XPost: rec.arts.sf.written, rec.arts.sf.science   
   From: bap@shrdlu.com   
      
   On 14/01/14 20:41, Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor) wrote:   
   >>      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.   
      
   Substantially all of the hydrogen used for "green" transport today is   
   manufactured by cracking natural gas. It's no more green than using   
   hydrocarbon fuels. Electrolysis of water is theoretically possible but   
   it's more expensive.   
      
   Of course splitting water in orbit should be reasonably cheap when we   
   build reliably robot miners for the asteroid belt. Fill a balloon with   
   hydrogen, sling a tank of liquid oxygen underneath and kick it out of   
   the door. Land it in the Sahara, burn the hydrogen to generate heat to   
   boil the oxygen and generate electricity. Dump the waste product out of   
   the back door.   
      
      
   --   
   Bernard Peek   
   bap@shrdlu.com   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)