Word: hydrogen
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...State of the Union address, President Bush let loose a string of incredible whoppers about the promise of hydrogen fuel. What our President, and much of the general public, fail to realize is that hydrogen cars are currently an unrealistic dream that will neither reduce our dependence on foreign oil nor improve the environment...
...average listener, Bush’s words sounded reasonable. The exhaust from a hydrogen engine is just plain water—unlike the noxious mixture of greenhouse gases, acid rain-causing compounds, and uncombusted gasoline that normal engines emit. And supporters hope that increased usage of hydrogen would alleviate our dependence on foreign oil, if we aren’t fuelling up with Saudi gas. This is the popular allure of hydrogen fuel: cleaner than Dick Cheney’s dinner plate, and not beholden to unstable and perhaps unfriendly governments...
...supplies of petroleum become scarcer and more costly, the notion of hydrogen-powered cars becomes more appealing. Hydrogen provides a tremendous boom for its bang: burning hydrogen releases more energy per pound of fuel than any other material on earth. Spurred by the key invention of the fuel cell, which allows for a controlled consumption instead of a rocket-launching burn, automobile manufacturers have developed concepts for hydrogen-powered cars, touting their vehicles as the future of transportation. Last week, for instance, General Motors announced that it will place 100 hydrogen-fueled cars on the road next year, with...
...amidst the hydrogen hype, few have noted where the new fuel comes from: fossil fuels. As it stands, burning hydrogen reduces neither demand for fossil fuels nor emissions of carbon dioxide, because almost all the hydrogen used today comes from natural...
...most common technique for producing hydrogen is known steam reformation. In this process, natural gas is heated with water at high pressures, yielding hydrogen gas and carbon monoxide, which is converted to carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Thus, because carbon dioxide is a waste product, hydrogen cars recreate the same problem that they are advertised to sidestep: greenhouse gas emissions, which the balance of scientific evidence suggests lead to global warming. More environmentally friendly methods of generating hydrogen, such as coaxing bacteria to turn water alone into hydrogen, are still largely in the exploratory phase...