Hi Greg . . .

I have weighed in on this topic before as a firm skeptic of the small electrolysis based systems - they simply do not produce enough hydrogen to displace gasoline in the combustion process - leading to the question first posed by Clara Pellar about burgers:
[img]http://www.rateitall.com/itemimages/29870.jpg?[/img]
"where's the Boost?"

However, if the article you have read is about the topic of chemical 'reformaton', now we're talking about a technology that can work if it can be made affordable and scaled down to a practical size: Can gasoline jump start hydrogen?

What alot people don't realize is that hydrogen like gasoline is not an 'engery source' it's more of a 'currency' or a 'carrier' of energy. Gasoiline is created in a refinery from crude oil - but it's less then 80% efficient in that 20% of the energy in the crude oil source is consumed in making the gasoline. Hydrogen has to be harvested from a source as well, and some sources are more efficent than others.

Some of the environmentalists that are big on hydrogen are attracted to ideas that suggest that water will be the energy source of the future - well maybe in the distant future - but not the future just around corner. This is evidenced by the fact that most of today's hydrogen comes from reformation of natural gas and crude oil: HyWeb Technical Article. This is due to the fact that available electrolysis technologies use more energy than the energy stored in the hydrogen which is harvested in the process - even in a large scale plant let alone under the hood of your car.

So what?

I think that hydrogen will be coming soon to a filling station near you (next five years give or take). I also think that hydrogen reforming technologies will end up in the cars we drive. This will allow for different types of vehicles depending on the use. Some cars will carry hydrogen (reformed from gasoline or natural gas at the filling station) while others will carry gasoline and reform it on the fly. Some cars will use hydrogen to create electicty for quiet city driving, while others will burn it using internal combustion. This could also include engines burning part gasoline and part hydrogen - giving the performance minded the the zero-to-sixty we want and the goverment the emissions levels they demand.

But this is just my take on things given what I've read.

best regards,
stock49

Links on the topic:
Progressive Engineer
Rocky Mountain Institute
CEES Princeton

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