"Existing reserves would meet less than 20 per cent of the world's platinum demand if all cars went hydrogen."

I took this a different way... this suggests to me that the "hydrogen economy tm" is not possible until we can split water without using rare metals, at room temperature, like autotrophs.

And note the simplistic argument here.

"At $2,100 an ounce - and remember that is more than twice the price of gold - at that sort of price and if it was to go higher, we could then start looking at lower grade deposits,"

This was picked up by a few astute commenters after the article... see

Steve:
31 Jul 2008 1:56:01pm
If you're using platinum for fuel cells you face a number of issues:

1) If you're producing hydrogen from electricity (by electrolysis of water) then you will lose about 75% of the energy in the inefficiencies. (Batteries are more efficient)

2) If you're getting hydrogen from natural gas, you're going to create a lot of CO2 in the process.

3) Fuel cells are more complex than most currently available batteries.

4) Storing hydrogen (safely) in a vehicle is still a difficult proposition and the energy density is low.

5) Creating a network of hydrogen filling stations (probably by retrofitting existing service stations) is a long way off. Contrast this with the easy availability of electricity.

and Dann who hints at the thermodynamic and material constraints

Dann:
31 Jul 2008 12:17:20pm

In order to mine all this extra platinum without producing extra emissions, we'll need to convert all the mining equipment to run off hydrogen first.

Of course, in order to do that we'll need a heap of extra platinum.

Ah - now I see the problem... :)

In fact this fairly decent exchange in the quasi mainstream media is kind of encouraging.

I read a journal paper once that suggested that on the side of some US highways there is enough platinum deposited from the degradation and ablation in catalytic converters to make mining viable!

Platinum and Palladium concentrations can be used as tracers of urban anthropogenic inputs into aquatic systems.

UPDATE 11:15 AUG 1

Good God.
And it may just have been achieved

The Guardian

Scientists have found an inexpensive way to produce hydrogen from water, a discovery that could lead to a plentiful source of environmentally friendly fuel to power homes and cars.

Daniel Nocera, a chemist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has developed a catalyst made from cobalt and phosphorus that can split water at room temperature, a technique he describes in the journal Science. "I'm using cheap, Earth-abundant materials that you can mass-manufacture. As long as you can charge the surface, you can create the catalyst and it doesn't get any cheaper than that."

The Press Association

Now scientists believe they have overcome the problem using technology inspired by photosynthesis in plants.

The system allows small amounts of electricity from solar panels to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. A similar water-splitting reaction occurs during photosynthesis. Later, the gases can be recombined in a fuel cell to produce carbon-free electricity.

Electolysers which split water are already used industrially, but are extremely costly and do not work in everyday conditions.

The new process is cheap and operates at room temperature, with neutral acidity water.

Now to commercialise it.
If true, and it can be mass produced as stated... I might just have to become a techno optimist!

Update 2
Posted to EB... but further reading reveals that the breakthrough on the catalyst is for the oxygen side of the reaction. You still need platinum on the hydrogen side... of course research is proceeding on this to.

Abstract to In Situ Formation of an Oxygen-Evolving Catalyst in Neutral Water Containing Phosphate and Co2+

Even one model that you could actually buy would be a start. As things stand, we have a handful of models running around the US and Japan, with 'wall/refueling station-to-wheel' efficiencies below that of BEV's, that you can't buy even if you were god, and have a handful of refueling stations available for use.

Not that it matters. Fuell Cells aren't robust enough for private vehicle use, and will need something of a breakthrough to become so. Niche applications are available, but enabling Mass, CO2-free Private transport isn't one of them.