future fuels?

[Pottree@domain.elided]

In a message dated 02/23/2002 3:41:13 PM Pacific Standard Time, 
owner-alfa-digest@domain.elided writes:


> As you can see Hydrogen has by far the highest calorific contant by weight
> and therefore would be an ideal fuel as it produces no pollutants!
> 
Not to get out of my depth, but I once attended a lecture on the topic of the 
hydrogen cycle and the potential of hydrogen as a fuel.  What I brought away 
from it was the notion that there is almost limitless hydrogen available in 
seawater, but to separate it from the O2 takes energy in itself, and the 
economics of the matter is that the amount of energy you get in the hydrogen 
is insufficient to offset the energy cost of liberating it from the water, 
but that at some time in the future this could turn around, for example, if 
very efficient photovoltaics were to make the electricity cost of the 
separating process very low.

Assuming this or some similar breakthrough were to happen: what would it be 
like to drive a hydrogen-powered Alfa? How would that work?  What kind of 
powerplant would the car need?  How would that affect drivability?  And 
assuming for a test of the fuel in use now the cost of the fuel were not an 
object, is there a working hydrogen fuel engine now?

Charlie
LA, CA, USA

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