Re: A small note on global warming.
Gang O' Global Warming discussion,
Something needs to be clarified here. Methane is indeed a greenhouse gas. It is also the primary constituent of all "Natural Gas" that you use in pipelines, usually over 95%. The use of Methane in internal combustion engines absolutely reduces our dependence on oil. It also reduces total Greenhouse Gasses (GHGs) in most applications. Yes, there can be methane emissions in the exhaust, where with a gasoline or diesel engine there are none. However, the reduction of CO2 vs. those other two fuels is high enough to result in a net reduction in total GHGs in most applications. Also, there are catalysts that are used to "burn" methane in the exhaust as well.
The product that I have been living, breathing, selling, and they even let the stupid salesman help with designing once and a while, has certified GHG emission reductions of over 22% with after-treatment (catalyst) and over 8% "engine out". In the world of GHGs these are big numbers. This is over a complete operating "cycle" on max output ratings of 400 and 500 bhp respectively. They also reduce NOx and particulate emissions. I know I sound a little like jdeagro pitching Smart Tabs, but the most frustrating thing for me (and jdeagro) is the above is all true.
There are a whole list of reasons that a transition to alternative fuels is painfully slow. The biggest is that the "need" is minimal and the pain is high from a commercial perspective. It is not because big oil taps my phone and threatens me at conferences, they in fact sell the stuff too.
The biggest barrier is fueling infrastructure. Consider for a moment though that Natural Gas is available in pipelines over almost the entire planet. It is already piped to most houses in commercially viable markets. it is compressible or can be liquefied for on-board storage. It is routinely transported in both forms by trucks, and is viable without pipelines for this reason too (there are remote towns etc. powered by trucked in Natural Gas). Many countries that do not have much oil have shed loads of gas, examples: China, Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Korea, sorta the UK, and even the US to a certain degree. Almost all countries that have oil also have gas too. Natural Gas is also less expensive per BTU than oil over the last 100+ years (no wonder most new power plants use it). I have truck customers in Australia who save over $80K USD per year, per truck. All of that is true too and this is still incredibly hard work.
So let's compare that to Hydrogen, there is really none commercially available. There are no pipelines, there are no huge liquefaction plants. It costs waaaay more per BTU today than natural gas, gasoline, diesel, ethanol, methanol, bio-diesel, propane etc. etc. (if somebody pipes in here and says it is free because you can make it from water I will shoot them with an emoticon machine gun guy or frogger's cat). To store it on-board vehicles (not the only option) they are experimenting with 10,000 PSI compressors (Compressed Natural Gas or CNG is stored at 3600 psi). At 3600 CNG requires 4 times as much space per btu to store than petroleum stuff. At 10,000 psi, H requires over 6 times (I made that up, could be 10, I don't remember, but it sucks). Also, BTW, compression is not free, see threads about relatively teeny tiny air compressors in tech topics . . . Hydrogen is inherently unstable and inherently fussy about staying put. It can get "out" of most storage media and do I have to mention the Hindenburg? Oh and , BTW, our engine system will burn Hydrogen too, so this is not some commercial bashing session. Yes, I am concentrating on vehicles and not other fuel requiring applications, but this is what I know . . . :=
Now also, rotting garbage, landfills, bio stuff creates Methane. I believe this is what Willy and CJY were referring to above. Garbage makes Methane whether you want to capture it or not. Soooooo, imagine for a minute you allow this Greenhouse gas to escape from your land fills. Although this is rare in the US, it is the norm in the third world. Now imagine for a minute that you capture it and generate electricity or I know, how about you run the trucks that bring the garbage to the landfill on the stuff? Great idea!!! Reduce the methane emitted by the landfill and reduces the GHG emissions from those same trucks. Big GHG reduction, right? Extremely expensive, but technically doable and there are a few firms that may have cracked the economic puzzle for that scenario.
I guess the point is that Methane does all of the things above, has a macro Infra-structure in place, is economically viable, and it is still a royal pain in the arse to gain any traction with. None of that good stuff is true for Hydrogen and the bad stuff is worse. Carry on . . .
