Hydrogen Petrol - the Holy Grail
UK Cella Energy Limited has developed what can best be described as ‘Hydrogen Petrol’. Could this be the Holy Grail of alternate fuels?
Many accuse us of a Luddite attitude to new technologies aimed at replacing our reliance on oil and the internal combustion engine. But nothing could be further from the truth. We embrace new technology, but only if it brings improvement. We’d hate to think car technology has already had its Concorde moment – what’s to come is inferior to what has gone.
So we do object to electric cars being portrayed as the saviour of the planet and a realistic replacement for ICE cars. Most of the science behind the ‘Man Made CO2 is killing the Planet’ is flawed, so we see the movement to find alternative methods of propulsion for our cars as a way to move away from oil, not to pointlessly cut CO2 emissions. And the electric car – on that basis – is useless.
It cost more to build than an ICE car. The range on offer is so restrictive that no one would treat electric cars as a viable alternative where it not for the misguided belief we need to cut CO2 (and even that claim is arguable given our reliance on the ‘dirty’ electricity used by electric cars). And arguably – for we have endless laptop batteries to prove it – the pitiful range available would decrease year on year.
More promising is the fuel cell – probably hydrogen based. That has big problems in terms of storage – hydrogen needs to be stored at very high pressure or very low temperature – but even conservative Daimler believe the hydrogen fuel cell will be commercially viable with five years.
But the real solution may well have arrived – ‘Hydrogen Petrol’. UK Cella Energy Limited has been created to commercially exploit STFC’s Rutherford Appleton Laboratory’s creation of what can best be described as Hydrogen petrol.
The simplest description of the product and setup comes from Cella Energy:
Working with the London Centre for Nanotechnology at University College London and University of Oxford, scientists from STFC’s ISIS neutron source have developed a way of making tiny micro-fibres 30 times smaller than a human hair. These form a tissue-like material that is safe to handle in air. The new material contains as much hydrogen for a given weight as the high pressure tanks currently used to store hydrogen and can also be made in the form of micro beads that can be poured and pumped like a liquid. It could be used to fill up tanks in cars and aeroplanes in a very similar way to current fuels, but crucially without producing the carbon emissions. This is the technology underpinning Cella Energy Ltd.
Cella Energy are trumpeting that this new fuel – which could be available within three years – is not just a viable replacement for petrol, could utilise the current refuelling infrastructure and be used in existing cars – all with little investment on the existing infrastructure and cars – but is cheaper than petrol.
In truth, it won’t be. Not by the time governments have taxed it to death. As indeed they will tax electricity to death as soon as – and if – electric cars become anything more than a minuscule and irrelevant blip on the car landscape.
But cost isn’t the issue here. It’s the enormous practicality of this new fuel, not just in the ability to render it almost inert in real-world situations, but the way it can be launched without first spending countless billions on infrastructure to support it. Which means that as soon as it’s viable it can roll out.
Oil companies should start to panic.
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