BMW officially announces the BMW Hydrogen 7 {Autoblog Green}

Sep 13th 2006 10:13AM Three basic --- and if intentional then malicious --- pieces of information are in this report on the new BMW Hydrogen driven car. (1) While hydrogen burning results in water vapor and no carbondioxide gas (supposedly the cause of "global warming"), the production of hydrogen from whatever "sources" involves extracting it from some compound, whether water or some organic or mineral matter, and it requres energy, and if this energy is produced by burning fuel (oil, natural gas or coal) carbondioxide emission occurs, and in the same amount as if that fuel would have been directly burned in the motor or engine of the vehicle. (2) Hydrogen is "infinite in supply," yes, because the earth, including water is made of compounds of which hydrogen is a part, but the energy required to produce hydrogen from its compounds, i.e. the materials that need to be burned to get that energy, is not. (3) Hydrogen is not a SOURCE of energy, as most of the publicity surrounding it seems to imply, it is only a means of TRANSMITTING energy, analogously with electricity for example which is also not energy itself only a means of transmitting it from the power station that produces it from combustiable fuels. There is only one caveat: If the energy needed for making hydrogen (or for that matter, electricity) is extracted from a NUCLEAR plant then indeed no carbondioxide emission occurs, so from this vantage point only nuclear plants are truly free of contributing to increase in atmospheric carbondioxide. But then "electric" cars are just as good as hydrogen driven ones, and the only issue is whether it's best to carry rechargeable batteries, or replaceable liquid compressed hydrogen containers.

Please issue a correction and an apology to your report!

Andrew Lenard