[matrixscarface]

I have noticed alot of talk about hydrogen fuel cells in cars. i can't see this happening in real life because of the cost and everything but we run toward anything that will get us off our need for oil. is my car going to have electrolysis??? what do you think?

[nemo]

Originally Posted by matrixscarface

is my car going to have electrolysis??? what do you think?

I think that we will not see a replacement of the petrolium-based internal combustion engine for many, many years; however, people are beginning to understand how remarkably inefficient the current models are. The current breed of hybrid propulsion technology in cars is promising, but it is by no means the best we can do.

Personally, I would like to see electrolysis, but I think that it is a long way off.

How Stuff Works has a pretty comprehensive description of where the technology stands now, with an excellent comparison of the Toyota Prius and Honda Insight.

Here are a few links to what the manufacturers think is the future:
Ford
Toyota
GM

[alexander]

Actually, GM has been given countless grants by the US government to develop hydrogen fuel cell engines, because I think they finally realized that the supply of petrolium is deminishing fast, and the new propulsion system must be developed way before. The second problem with Hydrogen fuel cell is where or rather how to get hydrogen, it is so hard or rather energey consuming to extract it. In fact, so far, most hydrogen comes from petrolium, yes they found out that it is easier to extract hydrogen from oil then it is from water, it is just such a stable bond. But very, very recently I've read an article about a propposed new nuclear power plant that will, together with 500 Mw of electricity produce about 2 kilos of hydrogen an hour many times more efficiently than regular electrolisis. But the government doesnt want to build a new powerplant, it has stopped building them 10 years ago and figure, wth we can go for a few more without any new ones... Hybrids are only a temporary solution, they lack the power, and so many of us are just so used to it that it is a bit odd driving those cars at first. But they still use gasoline to propell the car, well gas makes power for electric engine, and i think that it is not until we use hydrogen to produce the power for the engine that we will suceed in beating the petrolium dominance...