fuel cell

roadie

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anyone owns a fuel cell system ???

anyone ........

good and bad reviews needed ...
cheers
 

VidPro

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i have been looking, there is a flashlight using a fule cell already.
I wanted to go backpacking with a weather baloon filled with hydrogen, that would lighten my load. then i could use the hydrogen in the fule cell, and drink the water that comes out :)

from what i have seen so far, untill they start sucking the Hs out of gasoline, carrying compressed hydrogen around would be too large of a container. so short runtimes, high weight.

imagine that after YEARS of research, they conclude with putting GASOLINE in the dang things :) alternative energy ooookkkkaaaay.

the problem is most hydrogen is created, it doesnt pop out of the ground, or fly out of the sky, like the magic stuff, so WHERE the heck is Arnold going to get the hydrogen? if you have to make it, it will take about 2X as much energy to make as it outputs? what kind of efficincy would that be???

the only way its efficient is as a storage medium, all the excess energy not being used to light Lost Vegas, could be used to convert water into wine, and in that respect the hydrogen would be usefull when you have other useless alternative energies. like solar, or wind, or when you already got that coal plant fired up and need to toss off some energy.

so that just leaves using ammonia as the hydrogen storage, that would truely solve the problem, just fill up at your nearest farm stall / race horse.

(Conservation is the only SOLUTION, everything else is just making money.)
 
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PhantomPhoton

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VidPro said:
i have been looking, there is a flashlight using a fule cell already.
I wanted to go backpacking with a weather baloon filled with hydrogen, that would lighten my load. then i could use the hydrogen in the fule cell, and drink the water that comes out :)

:lolsign:

That's hilarious. Have to backpack in places without trees I guess.
 

VidPro

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PhantomPhoton said:
:lolsign:

That's hilarious. Have to backpack in places without trees I guess.

only a real backpacker would have gotten that joke.
luckily they will have killed all the trees (i mean manage them) by the time i get to do it.
 

MrAl

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Sep 9, 2001
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Hi there,

It's been said that it will take another 10 years before fuel cells are ready to be
used in automobiles, where the cost has to be brought down for one thing.
Once done however, it's also been said that it will be a big boom for cars because
of the many benefits. It's also been said (he he) that there still has yet to be
a way invented to make sure the hydrogen tanks dont blow up when a car gets
into an accident.
I think California has already taken steps to gradually switch over, over
the next 10 or 12 years.
 

roadie

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actually i was so into fuel cell last yr that i went to the military library to look for more info ......

Found some submarines are already using Fuel cell to drive around ..... named AIP

speed abt 6 knots but totally silent!

actually, what i was "looking" for here is the portable type, well ... u nvr know really if one actually owns one here......

: )
 

VidPro

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i am waiting due to a few things i hear/see.

they say that power vs weight , the fule cells are good.
but 12W/h total at 360+ grams, is not even equivelent to ni-mhy, let alone li-ion
they have to be turned on and off (so to speak)
they need either external air or oxygen tank TOO
practical is using external air, that means the air is highly filtered, BUT the thing still needs to be cleaned, cleaning means it has a life cycle (so to speak).
Catalysing expends heat.

so from what i can determine, for small use , while they SAY that weight for capacity is good, it is not, add to that the initial costs, and the cost of recharging, its and alternative power source not a "BETTER" one.

then seeing what a pain it is to squeeze out some hydrogen from something like my solar cells, just the gas compression is going to take more juice than charging my normal batteries.
 
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roadie

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Location
Singapore
hmmm but one shouldn't compare a fuel cell (no fule cell) to a secondary battery as fuel cell is a type of engine, which is often compare against the diesel/petrol/biodiesel/..... engines instead.

anyway ,

i shall :sssh: for now on this topic
 
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