[Vwdiesel] Re: Fuel 101 (rant)

[LBaird119 at aol.com]

  Ok guys, now I've had it on this subject! 
  It's not about opinions, greenness, religion or jumping down anybody's 
throat and Robs comment about somethign not being gotten didn't 
deserve what seemed to be a "corrective rant" from Rolf!  I took it that 
he was reffering to the fact that it's not just a simple, kinda like free, 
energy source, which we are all given the impression that it sort of 
is by most press and promotion of it.  Many of us DON'T get it because 
we don't stop long enough and REALLY think it all through.  Frankly 
we usually have other things on our minds.
  If you want to look at purely, ALL fuel is SOLAR based!!!  Wood, oil, 
coal, lard, vegetable oil, it's all sunlight collected by plants and 
accumulated.  (think it through.)  It's all a "carrier" of sunlight.  Not 
U 238 you say?  Well as Carl Sagan put it, it's "star stuff."  That's 
solar too.  ;-)
  Fuel cells are a clean source of electricity but when you look at 
hydrogen to run one then hydrogen is simply a "storage cell."  You 
put electrons in, get electrons back.  Check the energy levels of 
electrons in H20 vs H2.  Much more stable in the H20 form so 
therefore it takes more energy to go back to the H2 state than 
vise versa.  Nothing will change that.  If you're using hydrocarbon 
supplied electricty to break down the water, even if it's duterium or 
tritium, then you get back less than you put in and you're into the 
relm of what's the most efficient use of the hydrocarbon to turn a 
wheel.  NOT the common thought line of most hydrogen proponents.
Most fuel cells seem to be reported to run on 'hydrocarbons or hydrogen."
Now you're back to burning fossil fuel again by most accounts and thought 
lines.
  There's no free lunch, and we haven't found a quick, middle-man free
(plants) efficient way of turning sunlight into power yet.  :-(  Even wind is 

solar power as it's the differential from the sun's heat that makes the wind.
  We all drive efficient cars here and most of it's because we're frugal 
rather 
than green, but we're happy to have it work both ways.  It's not always the 
reverse on the green side of the fence.  If you took away all the oil used 
to power personal vehicles, I'm afraid that it wouldn't be as we're told 
it would be.  Oil usage would go down but not as dramatically as 
the guilt mongers want us to think.  A LOT of stuff out there uses 
oil and it's for many things other than powering an internal combustion 
engine.  
  Hydrogen is clean but I've yet to hear of any breakthrough that's made 
it efficient, in the whole process, it's just getting more cost effective.  
Electric cars are no benefit either if you get power from a coal or oil 
fired power plant, if using hydrocarbon reserves are your big concern.
     Loren  (rant off?)