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Until we have electric airplanes While I believe battery-powered cars like the Tesla S make more sense than hydrogen/fuel-cell based cars, perhaps fuel cells m
by icanhackit 11y ago
Until we have electric airplanes
While I believe battery-powered cars like the Tesla S make more sense than hydrogen/fuel-cell based cars, perhaps fuel cells make sense in airplanes. For cars, the weight of batteries are an advantage as they provide down-force and can be readily charged by virtue of being close the ground where there's infrastructure, in stark contrast to flying at 36,000ft where infrastructure is non-existent.
Addendum: The infrastructure issues that come with fuel-cell distribution and refueling would be eliminated thanks to the centralized nature of airports.
- kepano 11y agoGood point, but we don't have commercial fuel-cell planes either. Swap "electric" with "clean fuel".
- danielbarla 11y agoI've seen a number of back of the napkin calculations involving electric airplanes, but even when compared with fuel cells, traditionally fuelled airplanes have the advantage that their weight greatly decreases as they use fuel. Apparently a significant portion of the range of an airplane comes from when the tanks have < 50% fuel. This shifts the economics even further in their favour, aside from simple energy density calculations (as you're lugging the now useless, yet still very heavy batteries / fuel cells all the way to the destination). While I'd love to see a shift in a more sustainable direction, I wonder if we're going to be close to that anytime soon.
- thedrbrian 11y agoOn the other hand weight is the enemy of everything good in cars. Weight makes them worse , use more energy to move accelerate slower.