by ArimoDave » Sat 14 May 2005, 21:12:26
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('bas', 'w')ell, you can make hydrogen using electricity. Maybe biodiesel and alcohol are cheaper but you'd need alot of land to be able to substitute a significant amount of oilconsumption. The more land goes to producing biodiesel and alcohol, the higher foodprices will get and in turn this will make biodiesel and alcohol more expensive, this way hydrogen will become economically competative for sure. I don't know what the marketshares of these new fuels will be and I don't know if alcohol is more efficient than biodiesel or vice versa. Possibly one of the two fuels will be pushed out of the market by the other but hydrogen will be there anyway. You don't need enormous areas of land to produce it, a nuclear power station will suffice.
Distribution of hydrogen, however, will be a problem. You either have to make it on the spot, which will entail an expanded electrical distribution grid, or you have to transport the H2 across land. If you are going to run nukes perhaps we may synthesize propane. Its more transportable than H2 or methane; it compresses into a liquid under moderate pressure.
I think, though, many of us will be filling up on power-bars and energy drinks. Use the sugar to power us instead of making something like ethanol, etc.
Just my thoughts.
ArimoDave