There have been 2 big breakthroughs in hydrogen in the last couple of months (around production and storage), prompting BMW and Mercedes to say they'll have hydrogen cars by 2025. Germany has been investing in green hydrogen for 2 decades now. From what I've heard of synthetic fuel and hydrogen, it's just a case of ramping up and and moving to industrial scale as the current ways are not efficient. The reality is, it's just too early to put all eggs in one basket. Things will be discovered/improved and will play out in a way that we can't see yet. It's only been a short while since we were all told to buy diesels to save CO2....
Anything that uses another form of energy to then produce a different type of energy makes no sense long term as there will be inefficiencies in the process somewhere. All ICEs produce emissions of some sort. The hydrogen Toyota produces one cup of water per mile, multiply that by the number of vehicles on the road and you will have a permanently wet road surface I would have thought. I think much more likely is that we move away from personal transport to public transport. Most cars have one person in them on a commute and it’s highly inefficient.
The last few months aside, we’re quite used to wet roads As for public transport, it requires massive investment, something governmentS (see what I did there) aren’t prepared to do. It would require a cheap over/underground tram system that is within walking distance to everyone and everywhere, and be available all day with a tram every 5-10mins, something like the London Underground which was made by the Victorians, like most things and that’s also when the investment in it probably ended too
Public transport is the only way forward ultimately. Many cities of the world make it work if you make private vehicle use expensive and slow. We are already moving down that line. Whilst the UK has only just realised how useful high speed trains are after other countries have been using them for years, France is now looking at building a Hyperloop based on Musk’s idea. It will mean Paris to Marseille can be done in 40 minutes. Quicker, cheaper, more environmental than any other form of transport.
It’s only the UK and US who refuse to invest in public transport. Most other European countries do and subsidise it to make it work.
One of the major challenges of hydrogen is distribution. Imagine how many new tankers would be needed for delivery. It can’t be run through the gas mains and every fuel station would require new storage capacity too.
So the stick, not the carrot. Make the alternative so bad, you're forced to switch to the lesser bad option! Sounds awesome. I've commuted and worked in several cities around the world and I'm yet to see one that had public transport that got me where I wanted to go in decent time
It would indeed need different tankers, but they've shown it can be transported in liquid form just fine, just like another fuel that goes into vehicles, as I said, there's been a recent breakthrough in this. The energy is 4 times denser than petrol too, so each tanker would effectively be delivering the equivalent of 4 petrol tankers. And of course, we have distribution centres already built, no need for huge infrastructure projects (which aren't great for the environment themselves).
Still don't see hydrogen ICES being the solution to our problems. If hydrogen was used it would almost certainly be in fuel cells and not ICES. I've been to plenty of cities around Europe and a few in the UK where you don't need a car to get around.
It's doable, it's just whether it's pleasant or affordable. I was born and bred in London and took the tube for decades. I learned how to ride a motorbike just to get off of it. Way more fun, cheaper, and much better if there's a pandemic on.
This is true. However irrelevant, by way of explanation……… Hydrogen has more energy per unit mass than other fuels (61,100 BTUs per pound versus 20,900 BTUs per pound of gasoline). The problem with hydrogen is that it is much less dense (pounds per gallon) than other fuels. A gallon of gasoline has a mass of 6.0 pounds, the same gallon of liquid hydrogen only has a mass of 0.567 pounds or only 9.45% of the mass of gasoline. Therefore one gallon of gasoline yields 125,400 BTUs of energy while a gallon of liquid hydrogen yields only 34,643 BTUs or 27.6% of the energy in a gallon of gasoline. The Space Shuttle uses hydrogen as a fuel, because its mass is low, and the fuel is carried in an external fuel tank that is jettisoned during lift off. Automobiles can not have external fuel tanks that are discarded, and the energy per unit volume is used to determine a fuel’s energy density in automobiles. Compressed gaseous hydrogen is even less dense than liquid hydrogen. At 5,000 psi of pressure gaseous hydrogen only has a density of 0.25 pounds per gallon or one twenty fourth the density of gasoline. Gasoline and diesel are far superior fuels to hydrogen in this regard. Now !!! The thread was “what next for the multistrada” and as we know it won’t be a hydrogen fule cell, I’d like to suggest for the price we’re already paying perhaps a half decent chain and sprocket set
As the bike forces the wheels to turn, inside the wheel should be an actual magnet & windings assembly. So that it can charge back into the battery, or provide electronic braking via magnets getting closer to one another.
It is relevant because its highly unlikely we will be riding round on ICE engined bikes in 10-15 years time. No manufacturer is going to be spending millions developing new ICEs becuase they will never recover their outlay from R&D. Ducati is owned by Audi and Audi have said there will be no cars sold by them after 2026 which don't have some form of electric power. Kawasaki are about to relase some hybrid bikes. Ducati could build a hybrid Multi. Gigi said in a recent interview that every Motogp bike in every race produces enough energy from its brakes to power a house for a day but doesn't use any of it. There is no doubt its in developers minds.
