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[Richard230]

An article in my newspaper today said that the H2 fueling stations in California are not very numerous and are not being maintained very well. There are roughly 12,000 H2-powered cars on the road in California. And H2 fueling stations are hard to come by. There are only two in Sacramento (where the reporter lives), 62 in the entire state, including 22 in LA, 12 in Orange County, one in San Diego County, ten in Santa Clara County and three in San Francisco. The article says that not only are H2 stations hard to find but in the Sacramento area the fueling stations have been down almost as much as they have been up, according to John White, a longtime environmental activist who drives a Toyota H2 car. "That is not a good situation." he says.

Here is something that I didn't know: The article says that another problem with H2 is the "exorbitant cost of filling the tank", around the equivalent of $16 a gallon or higher. State Senator, Josh Newman, D-Fullerton, drives a H2 cars and loves it, but he says that "it's a challenge to keep it fueled."

[Specter]

Hydrogen is a bastard to work with.
I work in the power industry, we use hydrogen to cool the generators and have tanks of it that they fill once a week at least.

Because of the pressures the tanks are like inch thick or more walls weighing several thousand pounds each.  10 percent of H2 in air is enough to go kaboom.  Watch what happens when the new driver over fills the tank and the relief valves let loose.  The hydrogen spontaneously igniting due to the friction, it shook the entire building and sounded like a rocket taking off.

in a car, it's probably going to have to have some sort of material in the tank for safety, kind of like acetelyene is stored in vermiculite.  The fueling has to be tightly controlled.  No, you can NOT spill any.  That little dribble of gas down the side of your car as you yank your hose out too soon, could be catastrophic with hydrogen.

Hydrogen will probably be made using electricity.  The Electricity busts the water apart, then they need to collect clean and dessicate the hydrogen to give to you.  THAT cost money, not to mention the driver who has to run the big truck to deliver it to the stations.  Why not just use electric on the vehicle at that point, ie an E car versus an H2 car for the money / efficiency.

The actual production of hydrogen can be pretty cheap, but by the time it's suitable for the end user (that'd be YOU) that's a whole different story they don't tell you.

it sounds nice and neat but nice and real world seldom meet in a complimentary fashion.

Aaron

[Richard230]

The article said something about the H2 in CA being produced by natural gas. It didn't explain the process. Perhaps the natural gas was used to generate electricity, which was used to create the H2. That doesn't sound very efficient to me.

I took a look at my favorite H2 station located across the street from Alice's Restaurant today. It is now looking completely dead. The pump's LCD screen is blank and the red light that used to be on at the top of one of the equipment cabinets for the past several years is now off. A lot of money down the drain on that facility.

[Specter]

They can split the methane / natl gas up molecularly and get H2 out of that conglomerate.  Doing so takes energy, so again, putting more in to get little out.   

Ill run a solar farm to charge batteries so i can use them to run a cracker to make hydrogen then have to compress/ substrate it possibly then transport so you can fill up your car.  why not just use that electric to run the care and cut out all the middle process'

Aaron