There are many stumbling blocks when it comes to the successful use of hydrogen as an energy carrier for automobiles. Among those stumbling blocks is figuring out how to extract hydrogen in an environmentally friendly and cost effective manner, how to transport that hydrogen and subsequently refill a car with it, and where to put it once you've successfully managed to get around the first two. General Motors is working on the issues, as Sam recently reported. Universities all over the world are also attacking the problems, including Cardiff University in the U.K. Professor Neil McKeown and others are working on a new polymer which needs to be porous enough to be lightweight, but also must be tight enough to keep the hydrogen inside. They have doubled the amount of hydrogen their polymer could store by weight and are still testing other variations. They are halfway to their goal of storing six percent hydrogen by weight.

It should be noted that the prospect of having hydrogen-fueled vehicles in the hands of real paying customers in large quantities is still likely a long way off. Modern technology is capable of creating electric vehicles using hydrogen as their fuel source, but not in the necessary quantities and not nearly at the efficiency level required to make them financially viable. But, the same could be said for most other high-tech items that we all use today, and with a few breakthroughs, there might come a day when your electric car uses a hydrogen-fueled range-extender. Or not. We'll just have to wait and see. Let the comments start... now!

[Source: Cardiff University]

I don't know nearly enough about the mining of precious metals such as platinum to estimate how much it costs to get a reasonable amount from the earth. But, I do know that the metal is expensive to buy, so it must at least be reasonably difficult, right? So, perhaps we should be looking at recovering the precious metals, again like platinum, that we have already unearthed. That is what researchers from Cardiff University are suggesting.

One potential source for the recovery of platinum is from our own roadways. The team from Cardiff is trying to figure out the best place to find the platinum which is slowly emitted from our own tailpipes from our catalytic converters. One possible source: road cleaners. Sounds a little far-fetched, I know... but it's worth a shot. Like I said, if a reasonable amount can be recovered and recycled, that much less needs to be found in veins in the earth. Now, the researchers say they are hoping to reduce the cost of fuel cells, but more immediate uses would obviously be in more catalytic converters and other exhaust treatment systems which require the metal.

[Source: Cardiff University]