Forget electric cars. I want a methanol PFCHV
It's all electromethanogenesis, babyForget electric cars?
I must be off my rocker, right? So, which wild hair crawled up my behind?
Well, I am a fan of fuel cell technology, you see, and I've long believed that fuel cell hybrid vehicles, not just battery-powered EVs, are the future. Fuel cells are just too efficient to ignore.
Yet, fuel cells are not without faults, such as the need for scarce metals. Still, fuel cell issues, I'm confident, can be resolved.
It's cracking the hydrogen highway that's the real nut.
Methanol fuel cell plug-in hybrid vehicles, on the other hand, could use methanol pumped through the current gasoline infrastructure that dominates American life today.
Finish: Forget electric cars. I want a methanol PFCHV
Labels: electric cars, methanol fuel cell vehicles, plug-in hybrid vehicles
posted by Dahcredyns at
8:16 AM
7 Comments:
Full Story
It's all electromethanogenesis, baby
Forget electric cars?
I must be off my rocker, right? So, which wild hair crawled up my behind?
Well, I am a fan of fuel cell technology, you see, and I've long believed that fuel cell hybrid vehicles, not just battery-powered EVs, are the future. Fuel cells are just too efficient to ignore.
Yet, fuel cells are not without faults, such as the need for scarce metals. Still, fuel cell issues, I'm confident, can be resolved.
It's cracking the hydrogen highway that's the real nut.
Methanol fuel cell plug-in hybrid vehicles, on the other hand, could use methanol pumped through the current gasoline infrastructure that dominates American life today.
No new hydrogen highway.
No new super grid.
No new charging stations - not that they're bad - just not as needed in the short term with methanol PFCHV's.
But is producing methanol any more favorable than hydrogen?
It could be a game changer according to an exciting Penn State University study cited by Green Car Congress. Turns out electromethanogenesis, produced by microbial electrolysis, might be a great way to create methane.
So what?
Excess solar power and wind power, for instance, could potentially be converted into methane in a very transportable form. Thus, and this is just one tiny example, instead of homeowners with solar roof tops selling excess electricity during peak hours to the utilities for a fraction of the value, it could be saved, and stored locally for nighttime AC use. Or it could be used as auto fuel - auto fuel that can be transported across the country using the current American fueling infrastructure.
Hence, not only could electromethagenesis be the key to making alternative energy, such as solar power, terribly more cost effective - almost instantly - it could unify the entire energy sector, including autos, into a much more fungible outcome than electricity alone.
Sure, a plug-in methanol fuel cell hybrid vehicle, if microbial electomethangenesis can be cost-effectively commercialized, is still just an electric car, but it would be an electric car that could use both grid electricity and methane - methane that can utilize the same pipeline as today's gasoline.
Range anxiety? Obsolete with such a vehicle.
Obviously, there are issues to resolve before making such a vehicle a reality, but the potential of this technology demonstrates that battery powered EVs are not necessarily the end game, nor necessarily the best path for the auto industry.
One abundant future source of platinum for fuel cells and electrolysis plants would be the moons of Mars. Since a lot folks want to eventually colonize Mars, why not make some money while we're there.
Mining the Moons of Mars
http://newpapyrusmagazine.blogspot.com/2008/09/mining-moons-of-mars.html
Let's start a company!
Seriously, I love the private space development that is in its early development. Space mining will eventually be a huge business. Of course, it takes billions just to get started.
Still, there has been a lot of fuel cell research that has been minimizing the need for materials like platinum and maybe even bypass them altogether.
Still, I love that space mining idea.
Yes, much better idea than Hydrogen. Small problems:
1. Methanol is poison.
2. Methanol is corrosive.
But, these should be solvable.
A pump that will only deliver fuel when the nozzle is locked in the vehicle.
Suitable materials that will not be damaged by Methanol.
IIUC, the catalyst issue is an area where a lot of reseach is being done.
And I think you could argue that the problems seem small relative to the upside potential.
Let's still have electrics......just hybridize them with fuel cells to create the ultimate methanol fuel cell/electric battery/ultracapacitor hybrid.Both electricity and methanol can be highly versatile and made from many different sources.
i was only kidding when i said forget electric cars. and in the next several years, the technology powering these vehicles can be complementary.
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