top gear – alternate fuels
Quite a disappointing episode for me this week. Only 2 car tests, no real news, replayed footage during the Top Gear Awards ( some footage we saw just last week ), no challenges, and last but not least, top gear stunt man, who is almost as bad as Top Gear Australia’s “What Where They Thinking?” board. Aside from the fact that the episode was dull, they also declared the Honda FCX Clarity “the future of motoring”. This would have been fine, except they glossed over some of the issues involved.
They managed to point out during the test of the Tesla road car that the electricity used to charge it’s 6831 laptop batteries comes from environmentally unfriendly power stations, but they failed to mention where the hydrogen comes from. Yes, chances are we won’t ever run out of hydrogen as it’s abundantly available in most substances ( like old people, for example ) and yes, they mentioned that hydrogen had to be “scraped off other things” before it can be used, but they say it’s no more difficult than drilling for oil.
It might not be anymore difficult, but is it more efficient? Possibly, but the costs aren’t low. To “scrape” hydrogen off other substances ( usually natural gas ) requires quite a large amount of electricity and only about 18% of the electricity used to create the compressed liquid hydrogen can be recouped by the engine to move the car. I’m certain the method for producing liquid hydrogen will be improved over time and hydrogen may be the way of the future, but I just don’t think it’s the way of the future, today.
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