Oil Companies R.I.P. - Beyond Tiki

T Tiki-bot Member Joined: Jun 24, 2002 Posts: 1345	T Tiki-bot Posted posted on Mon, Jan 26, 2004 6:06 PM I'm no scientist, but it's pretty well established that you can't get something from nothing, at least "energetically" speaking. So the car runs on compressed air/hydrogen/unobtanium? Those fuels still need to be mined/created/processed/transferred/installed, and that takes energy. While they may pleasantly reduce the amount of nasty pollutants spewing out of vehicles in a crowded city, God help the poor folks living next to the hydrogen extraction plant. Most companies (even non-oil ones) are reluctant to jump on the new engine-tech bandwagon simply because of the huge investment in peripheral support systems required. Hydrogen powered car = good. Cost of dozens of hydrogen plants and thousands of filling stations = not so good. Getting car companies to invest billions because you say you will invest billions in processing/fueling and related support systems = highly unlikely. Hydrogen powered cars are already the Qudrophonic stereos of our time. That's why I predict hybrids will be such a success (and already are by most accounts). "Conservation" and "efficiency" are not buzz-words that excite people, so they really need to be reassured they are getting something more for the same expenditure. It's about time they started utilizing all that wasted momentum and braking energy. Nowhere-near-tiki rant off.

I'm no scientist, but it's pretty well established that you can't get something from nothing, at least "energetically" speaking. So the car runs on compressed air/hydrogen/unobtanium? Those fuels still need to be mined/created/processed/transferred/installed, and that takes energy. While they may pleasantly reduce the amount of nasty pollutants spewing out of vehicles in a crowded city, God help the poor folks living next to the hydrogen extraction plant.

Most companies (even non-oil ones) are reluctant to jump on the new engine-tech bandwagon simply because of the huge investment in peripheral support systems required. Hydrogen powered car = good. Cost of dozens of hydrogen plants and thousands of filling stations = not so good. Getting car companies to invest billions because you say you will invest billions in processing/fueling and related support systems = highly unlikely. Hydrogen powered cars are already the Qudrophonic stereos of our time.

That's why I predict hybrids will be such a success (and already are by most accounts). "Conservation" and "efficiency" are not buzz-words that excite people, so they really need to be reassured they are getting something more for the same expenditure. It's about time they started utilizing all that wasted momentum and braking energy.

Nowhere-near-tiki rant off.

Post #72698 by Tiki-bot on Mon, Jan 26, 2004 6:06 PM