replying to rwwink , passerby wrote:
rwwink wrote:

I guess I don't understand why there's the big push to use batteries
instead of fuel cells.
As I understand it, the fuel cell uses nitrogen (non-flammable gas) as
fuel, produces electricity and water vapor as a by products.

This was a wrong assumption, and so the rest of your post from this point on
makes no sense, I'm sorry. You may be confusing it with nitrogen-doped
catalysts used in fuel cells or with nitrogen-based fuels, such as hydrazine
and ammonia for experimental fuel cells, which are pretty much just
alternative ways to store and deliver hydrogen, which is still the source of
the energy.

You do NOT want hydrazine (highly unstable rocket fuel since V2) in a car that
can crash, just as you do not want highly toxic ammonia and, needless to say,
gaseous hydrogen at high pressure.

I'm not trying to say that the fuel cell technology has no future (every
technology still worked on has a future), I'm saying that there are at this
point more attainable ways to store and release energy - batteries of
different kind. The one thing that holds them back most is the charging time.
But there may be ways to handle that, too. Back in early 1900s there were EV
taxis in NYC that had replaceable battery packs. As the driver would run a
pack down, he'd pull into a depot and get the pack replaced with a charged one
in what was said to be a 10 minute operation. These were huge bulky lead acid
batteries - I'm sure these days a replaceable pack can be made much smaller
and replaced much easier. Perhaps won't work for everybody but it's one
solution.

Also, it might have been unthinkable 20 years ago that people would seek out a
charger as they arrive anywhere (home, work, mall parking lot) but this is the
first thing that I watch my kids do when they get home these days - they
almost instantly plug in lest their smart phones run out of juice. I'd say the
younger generation has already been conditioned to keep a battery charge level
on the back of their smart phone-assisted minds. Adding a car to this would
not be such a huge step, just another electronic device.

Anyhow, we're discussing cars here as if people that drive them would never,
under any circumstances, adapt to any change, such as the need to plan a trip
ahead with battery charge in mind, and that's just not true (for most people).
We are where we are because we were the most adaptable creature around, so
we'll figure this one out, too.

Cheers!
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