The funniest news lede I've read in a long time:
Credit Ford Motor Co. CEO Alan Mulally with saving the leader of the free world from self-immolation.
Apparently, our befuddled prez was about to stick an electrical plug into the hydrogen tank of a Ford hydrogen-electric plug-in hybrid. This act, if completed, would have generated Hindenburg-esque bad publicity and probably made Cheney our next president. (Eep!)
To make the save, Mulally apparently "violated all the protocols," grabbing the president's arm and steering him away from the plug.
Maybe that's exactly what Bush needs: someone who's not afraid to step in to steer him away from stuff that's eventually going to blow up in his -- and our -- face.
Wonder if Mulally would accept a pay cut ...
Cash for Clunkers brought us ... more clunkers!
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amazingdrx Posted 11:34 pm
08 Apr 2007
Actually it wouldn't have plugged into the hydrogen tank and blown up. The tank is thouroughly grounded and has no receptacle the extension cord would plug into.
But since the Ford CEO said it ("off the record") it'll fly in the mass delusional media. It's a great way to promote the danger of hydrogen as a vehicle fuel. Finally the moronic media and the moronic Ford CEO get together with the duuhboy to give our side some favorable press.
http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog
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planetthoughts Posted 12:01 am
09 Apr 2007
Still, when you read about the fact that hydrogen is far more explosive than gasoline, and inherently has no smell and is invisible, I wonder what we may be getting ourselves into. Really, I don't want to read, after the first explosion kills loads of innocent people, "Golly, how did we miss predicting that would happen".
Do any experts on hydrogen handling and vehicles (which I am not) have further insight or facts?
David Alexander
PlanetThoughts.org
Love your Planet.
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amazingdrx Posted 12:36 am
09 Apr 2007
Can you imagine an insurance company issuing a liability policy to a gas station where consumers are handling a 3000 psi gas pump hose? I can't.
Notice they didn't let the chimp anywhere near the hydrogen gas pump. He is below the average competence of 90% of US true. But it's that bottom 10% that will blow up every 10th hydrogen gas station. Remember 30% are still idiotic enough to support him.
http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog
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GreyFlcn Posted 2:57 am
09 Apr 2007
It'd probably just shoot a flame out and burn him.
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GRLCowan Posted 4:02 am
09 Apr 2007
A semi-open-air escape of a few kg H2 from 600-psi containment, much less than it would be at if contained as ambient-temperature gas in a car, but about as much as such a car would contain just after being refuelled: http://ncsp.tamu.edu/reports/CCOHS/record1469.htm
--- G. R. L. Cowan, former hydrogen-energy fan
Oxygen expands around boron fire, car goes
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Delay And Deny Posted 4:18 am
09 Apr 2007
The Texeme Construct offers international text memetics construction and textcasting services. http://www.you-read-it-here-first.com
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GreyFlcn Posted 4:20 am
09 Apr 2007
It's 3-4x worse on utilizing electricity than batteries.
http://www.greyfalcon.net/hydrogen.png
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GreyFlcn Posted 4:22 am
09 Apr 2007
Yes.
I don't want Bush to die, since "President Cheney" would be even worse.
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Pathos Posted 8:31 am
09 Apr 2007
Better hope your bosses don't see this, or you might get demoted, and have to go troll the PlanetSave forums instead.
:)
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Kate Sheppard Posted 9:58 am
09 Apr 2007
Kate Sheppard
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GreyFlcn Posted 10:03 am
09 Apr 2007
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Sam Wells Posted 11:02 am
09 Apr 2007
Onward through the fog
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smoothsilk Posted 11:03 am
09 Apr 2007
Tests have been conducted with the same energy-content of both hydrogen and gasoline which demonstrated thatgasoline actually has slightly more deadly force in an explosion than hydrogen.
This was made clear back in the late 1970's when Billings Energy Corp. of Montana were pushing for hydrogen as a fuel for interntal combusion engines (not to be confused with hydrogen fuel cell vehicles). They had many working prototypes, and the prez of the company regularly mowed his lawn with a riding mower that he filled with hydrogen gas.
Their solution was to store the hydrogen gas in certain metals that absorb hydrogen, and which release it when gently heated.
In any case, the publicity of their cause resulted in some good reporting, which documented on video the slighty more deadly power of gasoline (in a closed container) than hydrogen.
Still, hydrogen explosiveness is nothing to sneeze about!
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amazingdrx Posted 10:52 pm
09 Apr 2007
Why did the Ford CEO "exaggerate" the incident? Because he doesn't support the hydrogen plugin hybrid? And wanted to create an incident that exposed the impracticality of consumers with the skill level of duuhbya filling up a car with hydrogen?
Or did he actually believe an extension cord could be plugged into a hydrogen tank? That would mean he knew as much about his own company's product as duuhbya does.
Either way Ford needs a new CEO. And a new board. But that has been obvious for decades.
Metal hydride storage for hydrogen is actually a pretty good technology smooth. But of course batteries are still better than hydrogen fuel cells. In total efficiency and overall safety.
There is still the huge problem of 3000 psi gas hoses, with "failsafe" triple backed up computer chip safety systems that only let the hydrogen flow when the fuel nozzle is securely connected to the fuel tank in the car.
A 3000 psi hose with hydrogen coming out of it would whip through the air killing anyone if it hit them in the head. Then the hydsrogen might explode.
A serial plugin hybrid with a 25 mile range (that takes around 1000 dollars worth of batteries) will plugin safely to any extension cord and the backup generator will run on any liquid fuel from a normal gas station. It will average 10 times the mileage of a normal car and last for 500,000 miles.
If all vehicles had this drivetrain oil would last 10 times longer, enough time to develop better batteries that need no backup.
This technology is available to ford, gM, chrysler, toyota, honda, Subaru and every other automaker right now. And would be even cheaper with mass production. No dangerous, astronomically expensive, uninsurable 3000 psi gas stations needed. NASA even has trouble filling up with hydrogen.
Now do you see why I think the ford CEO created this "incident" to discredit plugin hybrids? 10% of present oil consumption in vehicles would be very bad for the oil business.
http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog
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caniscandida Posted 11:25 pm
09 Apr 2007
Too bad, he does not believe in the spectacular combustion incident ... Pshaw, we were having lots of fun imagining it.
Chickens are our cousins!
So are other sensitive animals!
Enough is enough!
No more factory farms!
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Questionauthority Posted 1:26 am
10 Apr 2007
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Delay And Deny Posted 2:08 am
10 Apr 2007
The President was merely showing his knowledge of plug-in hybrids.
The Texeme Construct offers international text memetics construction and textcasting services. http://www.you-read-it-here-first.com
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malexa00 Posted 3:45 am
10 Apr 2007
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrz5YV9CoDE
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smoothsilk Posted 2:15 am
11 Apr 2007
I've always wondered a bit about the hydrogen fuel-cell hype since it first appeared (though I was quite excited by Billings Energy back in late 70's, and the use of hydrogen to replace gasoline in internal combusion engines). Likewise, there have been some good articles in the alternative energy press saying pretty much what you said comparing electric or hybrid vechicles to hydrogen.
As these articles point out, there are just too many steps -- each one causing a major loss of efficiency -- in the hydrogen fuel-cell process to compete with eletric/hybrid technology. It makes it too expensive, too unwieldly compared to the "off-the-shelf" nature of wind and solar generated electricity going straight to batteries or the grid.
What most agree on is that hydrogen is (in some situations) a potential good source of energy storage (usually in stationary -- rather than ambulatory -- situations), but that is about it (at least at our current level of progress).
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Easterbunny Posted 12:39 pm
11 Apr 2007
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=domes ...
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amazingdrx Posted 11:39 pm
12 Apr 2007
The closest so far is the backup generator fuel cell/microturbine that Boeing is working on for UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles).
http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog
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