Shawn writes:

> >To small degree, that's correct, at least in the broader implication. But
if
>  >I were to say just one whispered bit of advice, as that given in the
>  >"Graduate", it's "fuel cells."
>
>  I've been dying to see this take off.  I test drove one of those Honda
>  hybrid cars a couple weeks ago, it was darn cool, but considering I drive
>  about 10k miles a year, I don't have a huge need for fuel efficiency, but
I
>  don't drive an SUV either, just a good old family mini-van.

The Honda hybrids don't use fuel cells. They're still gasoline powered, but
they do double the gas mileage of an equivalent car by recovering a
significant fraction of the energy expended in powering the vehicles during
the braking phase. Every wheel is a motor/generator. When the car slows,
braking is accomplished by charging batteries, where much of the waste energy
that would be dissipated in heating the brakes is put back into the batteries.

It's a simple idea, one that's been around for 50 years, but it's taken a lot
of little developments to make it practical, among the most important of
which is the microprocessor.

Fuel celled vehicles will almost certainly do the same thing, if for no other
reason than hydrogen is low energy-density fuel compared to any petroleum
distillate and efficiency will be necessary to provide a sufficiently usable
range.

Wirt Atmar

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