OT? EPA Says 55 mpg by 2026

Dean Hoffman · 2021-12-21T18:36:36+00:00

People building houses are going to have a problem. A good share ofthe construction guys I see have 1/2 ton pickups. Maybe they'll do what people did before. Fuel mileage standards led to people buying SUVs and pickups when fuel mileage standards were raised for passenger cars. One ton trucks could be really popular if they're not covered by this rule. I wonder how the cost will compare to a battery powered pickup.And I have a Toyota Tacoma. It usually gets around 23 mpg driving the highway speed limit and not sitting in traffic.

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T 4 years ago

Toyota came up with a tank that is very safe.

H2 can be transported the same way natural gas gets transported with pipes and trucks.

And liquid H2 is best suited for rockets. As you say, a real can of worms.

There are H2 refueling sites for trucks that make their own H2 on site with electrolysis. All they need is some solar power and a water supply.

But you are right, there are some things to iron out. They are worth ironing out though, not abandoning H2.

Nuclear power to H2 will allow these new fangled small nuclear plants that can't melt down to operate contentiously day and night without need to adjust to peak power needs.

I don't think solar cells can product enough H2 as demand rises.

Unfortunately, I don't think either of us will be around see H2 take hold.

A new generation of chemists has their marching orders.

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rbowman 4 years ago

The truck method isn't very efficient. We ran a glass blowing operation (wingtip strobe lights, not giraffes). You can work soda glass with an oxyacetylene flame but quartz glass requires a hydrogen flame. The acetylene and lox deliveries were standard but for hydrogen they would spot a tube trailer and swap the whole trailer when it ran down.

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This was in the '80s before the carbon fiber tanks so the whole trailer contained about 200 pounds of hydrogen. Even with the new tanks and higher permitted pressures you're looking at under 3000 pounds per truckload. To put that in perspective, a normal freight payload of, say canned beans, is about 45,000 pounds. Fleet averages were up around 7 mpg the last I knew, so that's a lot of diesel. I suppose you could run the tractor on hydrogen but the tanks might be dry by the time you got there.

We had to get a permit to store hydrogen on the premises. You could see the local clerk mentally adding 'bomb' when we said hydrogen. The plant was on an old WWII airport 5 miles out of town so he wasn't too concerned that we might blow it up.

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T 4 years ago

I remember having the beg and plead to get a bottle of 5% H2, 95% N2 for a eutectic solder operation that required a reducing atmosphere to keep bubbles from forming in the silicon.

Things are improving though. There are H2 refueling stations popping up, but no where enough. The storage problems have pretty much been solved. (Me thinks liquid H2 is a bit silly though, except for rockets.)

The YUGE drawback is the availability and cost of H2. Price per mile driven is still 11 times higher than gasoline.

A lot of design needs to take place. The alternative is to still burn gasoline.

Some folks like the idea of Coal Powered (EV) cars (rolling fire bombs) with very little range that take forever to charge and risk burning your house down if you charge inside. Not to mention coal powered cars are nasty polluters (coal for the electricity, lithium mining, disposal of old batteries, etc.)

I do not think either one of us will be around to see a H2 economy, but it is still worth the effort. The research I have seen is exciting. First you have to dream!

Hers is a 3 minute video on Toyota's H2 tanks for cars:

Tank Safety: Hydrogen Tank Gunshot | Toyota

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That testing would have been fun to be in on!

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T 4 years ago

I had better revise that that number to 6 times more expensive since the Brandon Administration has been in office doing their mischief.

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Ed Pawlowski 4 years ago

So you took a discussion of a potential breakthrough in automotive technology and made it into a political issue. Credibility lost.

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invalid unparseable 4 years ago

The huge problem here is politicians mandating technology and the major fault lies with one political group.

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Scott Lurndal 4 years ago

:T: has -never- had any credibility.

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T 4 years ago

Ed,

I was correcting my statement about the cost difference per mile driven. The Brandon administration cut that in half. The cost per mile driven is automotive technology. Artificial limits on mgp set by the government IS a political issue.

-T

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T 4 years ago

But I make you double check with your political officers to make sure you are still politically correct. So, I am doing you a service. Without me, your knee would never jerk itself back in place.

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T 4 years ago

Nice try Bob. I see how you act on other groups and I still think you are a nice guy.

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OT? EPA Says 55 mpg by 2026

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