Re: "Let the [Dodge] Spirit move you" --- again
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Re: "Let the [Dodge] Spirit move you" --- again



<snip>
there's just one hitch: no infrastructure to obtain and distribute
hydrogen to these fuel-cell cars.  [you can't just use the national
natural-gas pipelines for two reasons - 1, h2 is much tinier than ch4
and can whizz through cracks natural gas doesn't even see, and 2, a
phenomenon called hydrogen embrittlement, which affects steel exposed
to h2]  this sounds like another excellent way for gm to shelve the
pesky question of changing the way they do things for another long
stretch of time.  notice he didn't say 'introduce a fuel cell car to
compete with the likes of toyota'...

i predict they'll develop fuel cell tech, then shelve it, just like
they developed and shelved hybrid tech and electric tech before that.
remember the ev1, anybody?
<snip>

GM is not developing the fuel cell technology by themselves. There is another company (the name of which escapes me) that they are working with along with I think Ford and/or Chrysler and an Asian auto maker or two that didn't want to be named. If you could engineer a process where Hydrogen could be split off from other compounds (such as water) quickly enough to provide enough energy to be meaningful, it would eliminate the entire infrastructure problem. This is something that's actively being worked on. Scientists are really trying to understand exactly how photosynthesis works (plants have been splitting water molecules for millions of years) and they have already come up with synthetic molecules that can split Hydrogen of off Hydrogen Peroxide (this is still not a high volume process but it is progress).

Matt

mhaas@xxxxxxx
Cincinnati, OH
http://www.mattsoldcars.com
1967 Rambler American wagon
1968 Rambler American sedan
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