Re: Fuel Cells

["Shapiro, Mark" <mshapiro@EXCHANGE.FULLERTON.EDU>]

Jim,

The answer to that one is to use a renewable energy source such as solar or
wind generated electricity to produce the hydrogen by electrolysis of water.
Initially, this might seem silly.  Why not just use the solar or wind
produced electricity directly.  However, hydrogen provides a way to store
the energy and use it as needed in certain applications such as motor
vehicles.  Using a hydrogen fuel cell in an electric vehicle provides much
greater range than storage batteries.

Mark

-----Original Message-----
From: Jim Green
To: PHYS-L@lists.nau.edu
Sent: 6/2/2001 3:15 PM
Subject: Re: Fuel Cells

> If you use pure hydrogen as the fuel, the cell should last pretty much
> indefinitely. If you use natural gas or other hydrocarbon based fuel,
my
> guess is that the electrodes will become contaminated eventually and
the
> cell will stop working.

TX, Mark, but this gives rise to my question re renewability:  I am
wiling
to stipulate that there is a infinite supply of O2 -- assuming that we
stop
cutting down every tree in the galaxy -- but what is the renewable
source
of H2???


Jim Green
mailto:JMGreen@sisna.com
http://users.sisna.com/jmgreen