4 ms·
"The leaf hasn’t lived up to its promise, Nocera said, because the world isn’t ready for hydrogen fuel." And probably won't be for transportation because batte
by goda90 10y ago
"The leaf hasn’t lived up to its promise, Nocera said, because the world isn’t ready for hydrogen fuel."
And probably won't be for transportation because battery tech is improving. But if this proves to be an effective way to produce liquid biofuel that can replace gasoline/diesel with simple engine conversions, then we can repurpose our existing liquid fuel infrastructure and existing cars instead of building a whole new hydrogen based system.
- shaqbert 10y agoHydrogen fuel is indeed really difficult to manage. The Hindenburg accident come to mind, or the weight problems of fuel cell cars...
- ams6110 10y agoIt's the smallest molecule there is. It's really difficult to contain. It will leak out of steel containers while embrittling the metal. However it's not necessary to use pure hydrogen as vehicle fuel. Alcohol or other hydrocarbons can be used directly in a fuel cell to produce electric power, or be burned in an more traditional combustion engine.
- myrryr 10y agoHelium is the smallest molecule. H2 is quite a bit bigger.
- deciplex 10y agoHydrogen leaks out of steel containers because it's "small"? Doesn't the size of even the largest atom (or, for that matter, molecule) pale in comparison to even the smallest leaks you will typically find in a steel container?
- eru 10y agoIt's not normal leaks. It's about hydrogen and helium diffusing through the container.
- eru 10y agoThe Hindenburg had some other problems, too. The paint on the outside was extremely flammable. (And still, casualties came mostly from people jumping off the ship. The people that stayed on mostly survived.)
- mark-r 10y agoThe thing that made the Hindenburg transformative is that it was caught on film. After everyone had seen the disaster for themselves, they were never going to trust the technology again.
- Ericson2314 10y agoYeah this couid be an excellent stop gap.
- iamgopal 10y agoWhy Toyota do not understand this ?