karl jeffery's Page

We've been reading a lot of material about the "Bloom Box", a new fuel cell product being launched in the US. The product was formally launched at eBay's headquarters on Wed Feb

24th, and has a reported $400m of venture capital, with Walmart,

Google, Staples, FedEx, Bank of America and Coke also trying out the

device.



Just to try to understand the benefits of it:



Just like your local power station, the Bloom box takes natural gas and makes electricity from… Continue

I'm just trying to work out the viability of hydrogen motorcycles.



I found out from various websites that a hydrogen cylinder containing 0.5kg of hydrogen will normally cost around $100 for the hydrogen, plus a further $20 delivery charge and a $14 per month rental cost.



A hydrogen motorbike will have a fuel tank of 250g, on which it could go around 200km.



If it goes say 400km a month (2 fill-ups from one cylinder) then the monthly cost would be $134 for the… Continue

I didn't mean this blog to be a tirade against electric cars - I'm just trying to find some answers like you are - so I put "lithium ion battery lifetime" into Google and reached this link, from the technical support section of Fujitsu, the Japanese electronics giant, who probably know a thing or two about lithium ion batteries.



It says that lithium ion batteries will last 300-500… Continue

Here is a little calculation I did to work out the cost of electric cars in miles per gallon equivalent - based on the cost of the batteries and how long they last for - I worked out that its about 4 miles per gallon (for a Tesla in the US) to 6.5 miles per gallon (for a G-Wiz in the UK).



It is probably fair to say that if electric cars can work viably, then there isn't much point for a hydrogen economy - apart from as an expensive large scale electricity storage… Continue

The only energy system which can get us through the next 200 years is coal power stations with carbon capture, generating hydrogen power, with the hydrogen used to power vehicles, and generate electricity.



The future is not battery electric cars. These are a a fine niche market - but the bulk of drivers won't buy them, because they want a car which they can use to take their family out on weekend trips with - and you can't have that with present battery… Continue