John St. Clair wrote:
> Mark,
>
> Since you seem to have run a long thread on energy issues, I assumed you
> would be familiar with fuel-cells. Basically, it involves a semi-permeable
> membrane,
Oh, right, THAT fuel cell. Well, come ahead, I'm up to speed with semi-permeable membranes.
> combined with liquid hydrogen,
Ah, yes, liquid hydrogen. Tell me, my dear, where you'll get it from? NASA?
Actually, NASA just announced they found a star that is a white dwarf the size of the earth. It's about 12,000 deg C now, just kinda glowing, and the main thing is, it's a SOLID DIAMOND. If you were Julian Simon or Brad DeLong you cd suggest sending a rcoket there. It's more than a bn carats. (Brad would be a fuck of a lot Longer if he landed on it, accordng to current technology, ie, relativity. Not to worry. If you consult /jordan he will upgrade you while you orbit for a few millennia. Then you can bring the diamonds back here and trade with the cave dwellers who listened to /jordan's earlier theses about how technology will get there).
> that produces electricity and water
> (as waste). Newer versions can run on a variety of substances, including
> gasoline.
Yeah, right. Gasoline. Which parts of my posts do you start reading, the final period?
> Here's an excerpt from a NYTimes article (email me for the whole thing):
>
> The Great Green Hope; Are Fuel Cells the Key to Cleaner Energy?
>
> By ANTHONY DePALMA
> ...
> It is a fuel cell -- a flimsy-looking tablet about a foot across and no
> thicker than a computer diskette, which experts say may hold at least a
> partial answer to some of the world's most troubling energy problems.
>
> ''They may have the Holy Grail,'' said Roland Hwang, head of transportation
> programs for the Union of Concerned Scientists in Berkeley, Calif. ''The
> innovation we have seen from them over the last five years has just blown us
> away.''
Richt on, dudes.
> For years, Ballard has been a leader in fuel cells, which create electricity
> not by burning fuel but by the process of chemically rearranging the fuel's
> molecules to produce current with no emissions but water.
The ultimate planetary emissions-control. ...
> International Fuel Cells has already installed 95 stationary power plants of
> 200 kilowatts each, the longest-running of which has been in service five
> years. The company has also developed a simpler design than Ballard's for
> ridding the automobile fuel cell of its waste water. And others have already
> put fuel cells in cars and submarines.
Yeah, but..
> Last year, the Toyota Motor Corporation presented a fuel-cell vehicle that
> did not use a Ballard cell and was based on an unusual hydrogen storage
> system. At the Frankfurt Auto Show in September, Toyota introduced another
> fuel-cell car, this one based on carrying the hydrogen in methanol.
Methanol? Oh, right. Methanol is a kind of anti-plaque toothpaste, yes? Nothing to do with fossil fuels, yes?
> While even its rivals have been impressed by Ballard, some claims have been
> hard to believe.
!!!!.
> How, some ask, could a handful of engineers at Ballard so
> drastically reduce the cost and improve the effectiveness of the membrane
> that is at the heart of Ballard's success when industry leaders like W. L.
> Gore & Associates, maker of Goretex, have not made similar claims? Others
> suspect some degree of hype by a small company that needs to catch the eye
> of investors.
>
> There are still plenty of obstacles to mass-producing a system
yeah, like it's uneconomic and anyway depends on oil. Perpetual motion, 1998-style.
> that could
> someday replace, or at least compete head to head, with the internal
> combustion engine. One of the biggest is simply deciding which fuel to use
> and how to supply it. This debate pits fuel-cell supporters against big oil
> companies, since the fuel of choice is pure hydrogen, which does not come
> from an oil well but can be derived from methane and natural gas.
Oh, right. Methane isn't a fossil fuel, I suppose? Gimme a break...
John St Clair, are you really at the Department of Philosophy?
Mark