Alternate Hype

[stickmaker]

I am very leery about the prospects of large-scale replacement of gasoline with hydrogen. Leaving aside for a moment the infrastructure changes necessary, and where the hydrogen will come from, the fact that proponents are saying things which are demonstrably untrue makes me wonder if there has actually been any objective evaluation on their part.


The worst offense is the claim that the exhaust will only be steam. Well, if you're using a fuel cell, yes. But if you burn hydrogen with air in an internal combustion engine you'll also get various nitrogen oxides. (Air is mostly nitrogen, after all. That's where the vast majority of it comes from for gasoline and diesel exhausts.) So hydrogen-fueled internal combustion engines will need catalytic converters. Which simply is not mentioned by supporters.