"Doug Miller" wrote in message
t...
In article , "Ed Huntress"
wrote:


I think you're talking about hydride storage, which applies to storage for
any kind of hydrogen-fueled power plant. It's a possibility for
hydrogen-powered cars but the weight/volume problem is a big one. Of
course,
it's less of a problem with fuel-cell electrics than hydrogen-fuelled IC
engines, because the former use a lot less hydrogen.

But most of the technology is something I haven't studied. Hydrogen seems
to
present big storage and distribution problems, but some experts say
they'll
be overcome. I'll have to wait and see.

I think the wave of the future is going to be in electric vehicles, using
the
emerging "ultra-capacitor" technology. Capacitors have three advantages
over
batteries for use in powering vehicles: they charge in seconds instead of
hours, they're able to deliver power more rapidly when needed (e.g.
accelerating from a dead stop, passing, or climbing hills), and the
ultra-capacitor shows promise of attaining a much higher energy density
(power
to weight ratio) than is possible with any current battery technology.

Well, I'm all for electrics, if storage turns out to be manageable. I've
been fascinated by ultracapacitors but I haven't seen any indications that
their energy density is approaching anything reasonable for use in a car --
except as high-amperage buffers for acceleration and climbing hills.

Once again, too many technologies to follow, too little time. And too much
politics and ideology in the whole thing.

I'm expecting a massive rebirth of nuclear fission power when two things
happen: the policies of the UN and others finally fail to protect the
remaining vestiges of nonproliferation; and world leaders look around at the
options and finally get real. It probably will happen after I'm gone.
Whether we use some kind of gaseous or liquid fuel as the energy storage
medium for vehicles depends on advantages in electricity storage and other
technologies. Eventually, the energy *source* probably will be
nuclear-generated electricity. Some experts now say the resource, with
eventual use of breeder reactors (50 - 100 years from now) will last many
hundreds of years.

--
Ed Huntress