Quote:
Originally posted by jet_silver
H2O + C -> CO + H2
This is the 'water gas' reaction. IIRC the British gasworks used this process for municipal gas utility. In this reaction the water is supplied as steam; it is passed over red-hot coal. The reaction keeps the coal hot, so it can be sustained for a long time.
It is true you wind up with the amount of CO2 that the carbon you start with produces.
But a H2 powered car doesn't seem to offer many more advantages than that k3w1 clear hood. And - BMW, it's been done, there is nothing original about it. (Am I the only one on the board old enough to remember what kind of car "Color Me Gone" was?)
|
It seems to me that one major advantage is that all materials are renewable. Yes, coal is a fossil fuel, but charcoal, from wood, could probably be substitued for it. Eventually, oil will run out, but long before it does, it will become increasingly expensive as it becomes scarcer and more costly to obtain. This technology could begin to fill in the need for portable energy for vehicles.
The other obvious benefit is that the net increase of CO2 into the atmosphere is zero, assuming you do something with the CO byproduct. Trees take CO2 out of the atmosphere, are turned into charcoal, release it again in the 'water gas' reaction. Anyone know what happened to the CO when the British manufactured gas with it? Besides killing Sylvia Plath, that is? What's the natural CO cycle in the atmosphere?