<A Nice Counterexample The Oil Drum Weekend Open Thread...>

69 comments on Urban Survival: The GOM Situation

Comments can no longer be added to this story.

| Show without comments | PDF version

Magnus Redin on October 3, 2005 - 7:58am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Why use hydrogen as fuel with a completely new infrastructure when it easily can be uses in the current refineries to upgrade crude and thus distribute the energy content within the current infrastructure?

I guess that the best hydrogen distribution method when oil get realy expensive is as synthetic methane. And then you reuse the natural gas infrastructure for distribution.

Comments can no longer be added to this story.
Engineer-Poet on October 3, 2005 - 10:31am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
The problems with synthetic methane are two:  efficiency of use and the carbon.  Methane is no easier to use efficiently than gasoline (compared to e.g. zinc, which is usable at about 62% efficiency in Zn-air fuel cells) and you've got to obtain the carbon somewhere.  Fossil carbon will eventually run short, and renewable carbon isn't available from conventional sources isn't available in the quantities required.
Comments can no longer be added to this story.

69 comments on Urban Survival: The GOM Situation

Comments can no longer be added to this story.

| Show without comments | PDF version