When all the oil has gone, NOTHING that needs oil for lubricating moving parts will be any use, including wind turbines, no oil means no grease, sun tan lotion, plastic or any of the other many thousands of products that are produced from oil by petro-chemical procecesses.

Rob Watt, Bath, UK

In answer to Andyj Wigan.

The secret to using battery powered cars in the future will be to call into a battery exchange station where your cars battery wil be replaced by a fully charge battery in about 2 minutes. Battery chargers as such will not be needed by the motorists.

Jim Wills, Brisbane, Australia

This is not a pollution free system. Fossil fuel is burnt to produce the hydrogen.

Battery powered cars charged from solar generated electricity is a less polluting system as it does not use fossil fuels in the manufacturing process of the vehicles and its continuing power needs to operate it.

Jim Wills, Brisbane, Australia.

Can any one tell me whether the following inventions work?
The Benefits Of Water-Fuel Conversions

Drive your vehicle more miles per tank of gas (Save heaps of money on gas!)
Reduce fuel emissions and help the environment
Completely reversible so has no effect on the value of your vehicle
Web sites:
DriveWithWaterFuel
Water4Gas
Wam-a-bam
Also on Youtube. Check for yourself.
SEEMS CHEAP.
Let's face it the claimed(???) savings could save a pile of CO2 but would cost the Government a packet in taxes!
Ooops!, probably why it has been kept very quiet.
TRIED ELSEWHERE BUT GOT NO RESPONSE

M. Cawdery, Portadown, Co. UK, EU

There are prototype domestic hydrogen generators close to production now, the size of a fridge that can generate hydrogen to power a conventional car, after conversion similar to that for LPG 'dual fuel' cars. This will help the issue of the cost of replacing the huge conventional vehicle fleet.

The input electricity can be any power source e.g. nuclear, or wind turbines during off peak periods (thus providing one way to store the power of wind and wave).

Hydrogen can also be used for gas cookers etc. or used as feedstock to generate more complex gasses.

paul, sheffield, UK

Hydrogen produced by steam methane reforming and put into a fuel cell car actually reduces green house gas emissions by ~50% as compared to a gasoline or diesel vehicle. This is true despite the fact that this production method generates CO2. The basis is called a "Wells to Wheels Analysis" in which you look at all emissions related to production, distribution and use of the fuel.

Also note that 50% of the H2 in the steam methane reforming process actually comes from water.

Nick, Zionsville, US

the energy delusion.
we can't convert enough energy from the sun to power our vehicles.
steam reforming to produce hydrogen essentially converts fossil fuels to co2 with poor efficiency. (but it's nice thinking we're burning hydrogen and pumping out water)
nuclear is the only answer at present and that will run out.
you can't drive your car, get on a plane, the train, whatever and sit there thinking you're 'green'.
it's impossible to split water and recombine it at a net gain of energy.
i've read a few comments. how many solar panels do i need to get the hydrogen and compress it? far too many. maybe i'll try to extract the 0.00005% from the atmosphere?
fossil fuels are running out - we might know it all - we cant generate energy from nothing.
best to stick with biofuels - we can all watch the world starve (obviously out the car window).

mark c, dartford,

This idea is dead in the water. the only answer to global warming is LESS PEOPLE!

Honda's car has a range of 90 miles and performs, quite frankly, crap! The Tesla (electric) car has a range of 220 miles, plus a 0-60 of around 4 seconds. The Honda has a large baggage of tanks, cells, control electronics and yes, batteries.

The Honda cannot even be recharged from home! An electric car will have to carry its own recharger if no supply is available. Mine will be a multi-fuel chip fat burner, thank you. :-)

Andyj, Wigan, UK / fine thanks

I am interested in the articles on hydrogen fuel for cars, from the respect that I managed a repair and test facility for cryogenic gas equipment whilst serving in the RAF( this was for oxygen). As I remember cryogenic gases are stored at temperature somewhere in the region of -188 degrees C in a vacuum flask. All the portable and static containers we used would gas off when full, in about two weeks dependent on the condition of the vacuum, to about three quarters of their original capacity. The liquid content of the vessels expands to about 800 times when returning to gas; this cannot be contained. This produces two safety problems: I expect the designers have an answer.
If completely emptied and moisture gets in all of the relief valves freeze and an explosion may occur on filling. If a car was parked, tank full, in an integral garage for a few weeks and someone turned the light on, wouldn't you have to retrieve your house from the next town after the explosion.

Pete Lane, Cardiff, Wales

Wonderful news, the sort of development I been waiting for most of my adult life. When this technology is predominant we will surely look back at our dirty and noisy old fossil-burning engines in the same way we now look back at Victorian town centre streets full of dung from horse-drawn carriages. A historic era now frozen in the past, gone but not forgoten. How could we ever forget the noise, the filthy fumes, the expense, the oil-wars, the pollution, the sootiness and general beastliness of countless millions of petrol and diesel engines thundering along all day every day?.

Albert Grudge, Taunton, UK

People keep referring to the pollution free hydrogen car, but there are a number of issues with them.

Firstly, the exhaust is basically water. Think of the number of cars on our roads and imagine the amount of water being released. Will our streets need better drains, our villages better flood defences?

Secondly, while conventional fuels produce co2 as the main product of inefficient burning, will there not be a grave danger that in the absence of carbon the product of inefficient burning (or perhaps that should be over efficient burning) will be nitrous oxide. The well-known laughing gas. If nothing else, I suppose it may cheer up the streets of Britain.

A final advantage will be that we will be able to fill ballons from the fuel tank for the kiddies party. Never a dull moment when they go pop.

Mike Poulsen, Reading, Berkshire

despite popular belief lpg is a far safer fuel to use than petrol ....no plastic tanks .....in the event of a fire it just flares off thanks to the safety equipment
couple of years ago I saw a motor home in spain which had been T boned by a van directly on the tank ......which was compressed but did not leak
the impact was so severe that the occupants of the van were killed

and , as already referred to by b j deller , this only works in conjunction with nuclear power generation , otherwise the pollution is just being moved

colin grayson, paris, france

I like the idea of a solar hydrogen producer in the garage, but sadly I think commercial quantities will come from the steam reforming route already mentioned below, which uses natural gas or LPG as feedstock and rejects all the carbon atoms as CO2, so no help at all to global warming - in fact it can make it worse, because the process requires huge amounts of heat to work and the rejected carbon could have been used as fuel rather than converted straight to CO2 .

However, a hydrogen car will be pollution free so making for cleaner air at street level.

On the safety aspect I read some time ago that hydrogen tanks will be filled with some kind of porous matrix, so in the event of a split in the tank, the gas cannot rush out all at once - well that's the theory anyway!!

John Webster , Aylesbury Vale, Bucks

Gordon Pye wants to use such a sensationalist description is "riding around with a bomb in the boot" , and then has the cheek to talk about other people having a lower than average IQ? Outstanding!

If you want to be that melodramatic about, then let's refer to things like aerosol cans as bombs too, in fact, surely a petrol or LPG tank is a potential bomb too?

Alex, London,

Where does the hydrogen come from?

Yes Lance, I also love the idea of doing it from solar cells, but in reality it won't be and all those talking about emission-free motoring are talking so much utter nonsense.

As to doing it for yourself, and what will the government do without all that fuel duty, can I point you to all the interest in road tolls? Why else did you think they were doing it?

Jon, Winchester,

Hydrogen cells ara complete waste of time and effort for cars, which is why California has just decided that the way forward there is lithium-ion battery-powered hybrid vehicles. Just ask yourself where the hydrogen has to come from - answer, to supply all the hydrogen that the UK would need to convert all its cars to hydrogen fuel cell use would require building 110 new nuclear power stations. Ain't gonna happen - do more research before letting loose with this kind of article !!

clive, surrey, uk

Hydrogen- I remember seperating it from oxygen in school. Basic science that! And water is not our only source of hydrogen... its in the air!

AK, Pig Hill,

"Where will the energy come from ?" is the more important question. The energy required to produce hydrogen from water by electrolysis or steam reforming is substantially greater than the energy obtained from burning the hydrogen. If the electricity comes from a coal burning power station, then CO2 emissions would still be produced. Of course, electricity could come from other sources, including wind, hydro and nuclear. So whilst the arrival of a hydrogen fuel station is good news, it is certainly not solving the CO2 emission problem by itself - it is only moving it to somewhere else. And remember that the energy involved is very much greater - could be bad news !

R.J.BURKETT, Worcester Park, SURREY

As usual the UK is years behind in deploying H2 refuellers. Here's an interesting link which shows the global position. Note the lack of little flags here.....

www.h2stations.org

DickW, Aberdeenshire,

For those that ask where will the hydrogen come from....

My solution would be to make your own. Collect rain water. Filter it. Use solar panels to break it down into oxygen and hydrogen and use a solar comprssor to compress the hydrogen. Not 100% green as nothing ever can be.

One point though is this... as it would massively eliminate the need for petrol and diesel the government will hate it as they will lose out on all their tax and fuel duty. I'd LOVE to see how they would argue you pay tax on what would be free fuel - sun and rain.

Come to think of it, why stop at just powering a car? Could not the whole house be powered this way?

Lance, Crawley, UK

I thought that currently most hydrogen is made by steam reforming, ie conversion of methane & water to CO2 via hydrogen. Not very eco friendly.

matt, dartford,

It would have been interesting to know how the hydrogen is to be produced in sufficient volume for commercial use.
Having a lower than average IQ ,certainly lower than that of Gordon Pye, I and many others would better appreciate the enviromental gain.

robert everitt, wolverhampton,

""offering drivers the prospect of pollution-free motoring. ""
And where does all this hydrogen come from?? From water involving energy use to break H-O bonds.
And where does this energy come from - fossil fuel burning.
Pollution free now ?

Richard Garland, Greater Manchester,

Hydrogen is the future. Just think, we can all generate it in our garages at home with a device the size of a refrigerator and fill up everyday after work. Nuclear power is the way to go as France is showing the world, and the waste can be stored until the scientists find a use for it as they will.

The greens will have no causes.

B J Deller, Marbella, Spain

Gordon, may I suggest that before using emotive language like riding around on a bomb, you first make the study of the behaviour of hydrogen and compare with LPG or even petrol. In the event of a leak, hydrogen gas will move vertically upwards, rapidly becoming diluted with air to below the lower explosive limit. LPG and petrol vapour, being heavier than air, will move downwards and spread out at ground level until it reaches a source of ignition. Whilst all fuels presents a fire or explosive risk, in my opinion the danger of hydrogen is significantly less than that posed buy more conventional fuels.

I agree that hydrocarbons could be used in the production of hydrogen but there are other ways of generating hydrogen that do not involve hydrocarbons. A simple example would be electrical generation using wind power, tidal power or even nuclear power.

I would agree that the greens are frequently guilty of overstating their case, nonetheless this should not detract from a good idea.

Sanny, Glasgow, Scotland

Yes let just drive around in petrol cars forever ok? Yes honda spends billion in the hope it can pull the wool over everyone in the world's eyes and get people to buy thier fake enviromentally friendly car.

peter, newcastle,

for those that don't know, the hindenburg didn't blow up becuase of the hydrogen, it was the highly flamable outer layer that caught fire from a spark and caused it to set on fire.

peter, newcastle,

Fantastic News

I hope its not just hot air!

Mike, Liverpool, UK

I am personally not keen on riding around with a bomb in the boot, but plenty of drivers seem happy t o use LPG. Like most misleading articles on the subject it totally fails to point out that carbon is likely to be used in the production of Hydrogen. Its just another green marketing scam to fool those with a lower than average IQ.

Gordon Pye, Clitheroe, Lancashire