http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/environment/story.jsp?story=5020
-
I've included this article as an example because the problems with
it are many:
1. I've read that commercial hydrogen requires more energy invested
than will be returned (EROEI-Energy Returned On Energy Invested).
Hydrogen is extracted from natural gas, which, along with oil, is
a finite, non-renewable resource. The extraction process requires
steam, created by burning hydrocarbons (more natural gas, oil or
coal), contributing to global warming.
2 . Ford claims zero pollution, but pollution is generated during
the process of producing hydrogen (hydrocarbons are burned to generate
the hydrogen, etc., contributing to global warming).
3 . The transportation system he envisions still greatly depends
on oil, even if hydrogen could be used to power automobiles. This
is unsustainable since experts are saying that Peak Oil production
for the world will occur around the year 2010.
4.
Ford will profit greatly in the short term if people believe his
claim.
- To fully validate Mr. Ford's claims, read "Nine
Critical Questions to Ask About Alternative Energy".
Ford Chairman: Era of Internal Combustion Engine is Over
Ford chairman calls climate change world's #1 issue
FORD PREDICTS
END OF CAR POLLUTION
By Michael McCarthy,
Environment Correspondent
06 October 2000
The Independent (UK),
Oct. 6, 2000
The 100-year reign
of the polluting internal combustion engine
is coming to an end, Bill Ford, chairman of the Ford Motor Company,
said yesterday. It will soon be replaced in motor vehicles by
the
hydrogen fuel cell, which emits no pollution whatsoever and
so can reduce the build-up of greenhouse gases causing climate
change, Mr. Ford, great-grandson of the company's founder,
Henry Ford, told the Greenpeace Business Conference in London.
In a remarkable speech
from a motor manufacturer, in which
he proclaimed his own environmental credentials, Mr. Ford,
43, accepted that the automobile had had a serious negative
impact on the environment, and that his industry had wrongly
played down the threat from global warming. And the head of
the world's second biggest car company raised eyebrows even
further when he said that he could foresee the day when people
would not want to own cars, but merely have access to mobility.
Detroit-born Mr. Ford,
who has been chairman since the start
of last year, proclaimed that climate change was the most
challenging issue facing the world and that anyone who disagreed
was "in denial". Ford itself had moved on from that
position,
he said. But he felt the Kyoto protocol, the 1997 pact in
which the industrialised nations agreed to try to limit
their emission of greenhouse gases, would not provide deep
enough cuts to halt global warming. Only the marketplace,
making new technology widely available, could tackle the
problem.
A fuel cell creates
energy by an electrochemical process
similar to that in a battery: it lets hydrogen and oxygen
react together to produce electricity and water vapour.
It does not run down or need recharging, working as long
as the hydrogen fuel is available, but most importantly,
it does not produce any CO2, the basic by-product of any
carbon-based fuel such as oil, gas or coal. Every major
car company in the world is throwing huge sums into
developing the technology: Ford is spending $1bn (?690m)
between now and 2004, while Daimler-Chrysler, regarded
as the leader in the field, has spent $700m.
All the main manufacturers
have prototype fuel-cell cars
running and there is a race to bring them to market.
Honda and Toyota expect to do so in 2003, while Ford
and Daimler-Chrysler are aiming at 2004.
"I believe fuel
cells will finally end the 100-year
reign of the internal combustion engine," Mr. Ford
said, adding that the technology was "the holy grail"
of the motor industry. Prophesying the demise of car
ownership, he said: "The day will come when the whole
notion of car ownership is antiquated," he said.
Mr. Ford was reflecting advanced motor industry
thinking, which suggests many people might not want
to pay for a car of their own if they could be
guaranteed mobility on demand from a local hire
network.
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