How will fuel cells change our lives?  what benefit will there be on our economy in the long run?  I will give the "best answer" to the person who comes up with the most ideas.
206413
Fuels cells will allow us to creat energy without using fossil fuels and the waste it creates while processing these fuels. By combining oxygen and hydrogen effecitively, energy is created, with virtually no waste. Unlike fossil fuels, there is no limit to the the oxygen and hydrogen that surrounds us. The end result will be cleaner fuel without shortage of supplies and the cost of this will be more affordable to all. Fuel cells are currently being used and tested in space travel by NASA engineers. Fuel cells are the future! A bright one at that!
107480
Technology will solve all problems. In time we'll be capable of living anywhere. Better question is will we be alive to see it.
26582
I know that one thing they're using them for is car engines, although that's still in it's early phase.  Please to note, though, you left out the fact that extracting hydrogen from it's chemical friends is, as of yet, not energy efficient.  This is the main downfall of hydrogen fuel cells.  Currently, though, photoenzymes are being developed to solve this problem.  Until then, though, fuel cells are not a good alternative energy source.
145605
Depends on what you mean by "new". There are lots of new sources in development, but nothing that is practical or economical yet. Hydrogen fuel cells are clean, efficient and non-polluting. But they are still very expensive and you still need a source of elemental hydrogen to make them work. \n\nOur best bet is hydrogen fusion - thais is what powers the sun. But we are still decades away from a successful commercial power plant. Until then, we are dependant on oil and natural gas.
423863
Here is an idea.\nCompare power supplies by weight, volume and power density using various batteries.\n\nThere are many batteries on the market now, so it might be very educational for you and anyone looking at your project.\n\nConsider using the following batteries:\nLead acid battery\nLithium-ion battery\nLithium ion polymer battery\nNickel-cadmium battery\nNickel metal hydride battery\nMolten salt battery\nSilver-oxide battery\nWater-activated batteries used in radiosondes\n\nYou could compare different AA batteries of different types and costs.\n\nA good starting point for references on batteries is on Wikipedia:\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batteries\n\nYou might even be able to get a small prototype fuel cell if you ask to work with a battery manufacturer, a research company, or someone like NASA.\n\nYou should start thinking of what kind of a hypothesis you could write to kick of the experiment.  Hint: Don't worry if your experiment fails and you fail to prove your hypothesis. Sometimes the best experiments are failures!\n\nHope this helps!
641135
The US tows the worlds economy, but soon it will stop based on the cost of energy/supply.  The solution is to change the economics of Renewable Energy by creating sellable spin-off benefits.
194002
Mainly when the automotive ind. decides to earn less money and throw away part of the technology they've been using for about 90 years. But regarding alcohol it is already used in some countries like Brazil, but there is no big difference... we should go for hydrogen or solar... well actually water looks nice but I don't think it'll work.
640306
Yes, we've known about electrolysis for a long time.  It's how submarines make breathable air while submerged -- they electrolyze seawater and just bubble the hydrogen overboard while releasing oxygen gas into the boat.  However, it takes a lot of energy to convert water into hydrogen and oxygen, which isn't a concern in a small space with a nuclear reactor to power everything, but it isn't a 100% efficient conversion of electrical energy into chemical potential energy.  There is a loss of energy due to heat, for instance (the electrodes heat up with current passing through them, and even the wiring that carries it there), and as with any energy system, you have to take entropy into account.  Depending on who you talk to, you can get anywhere from 50% up to 94% efficiency, but you'll always put more energy into it than you get out of burning the hydrogen later on down the line.  The reason we're still researching fuel cell and hydrogen cars comes from the mechanical efficiency of the different types of engines -- you currently still get more bang for your buck out of fuels than from an electric motor-driven car.  The energy is only reusable if burning the hydrogen generates the electricity to separate the water back into hydrogen again, in which case, you're talking about a perpetual motion system, and that's physically impossible.
316121
How about a friggin car you can run on food waste?  I'm tired of paying rich bastards who play price fixing games making money off me.  Ethanol or Methanol sound like a better alternative if we can all start making our own fuel without blowing up a few city blocks.\n\nSaw a news bit about a water-fueled motor the other day...\n\nJust read that answer above.  170 miles on a cell?!?  Are you freakin' kidding me?!?  My 113hp/69ft. lb motorcycle with a 4.5 gal tank does over 200 miles!  AND, it does wheelies!
265387
for a long time if we hurry and grow up and learn responsible, sustainable living practices.  no more two kids per family, no more mcdonalds, no more flushing my toilet that uses 0.8 gallons of perfectly fine potable water per flush.  neither buying goods imported from anywhere, we would have to make things for ourselves, or at least keep things local.  no more tritium seeping out of our reactors.  producing our own food, namely agricultual goods, instead of relying on corporate greed.  our 1 person per vehicle goingto work everyday thing would have to stop, and a revolutionary mass transportation system developed.  FUSION would have to be viable, because we cannot keep on the path of mining our earth for things we just use up like coal, oil, titanium, gold, diamonds.  i'm not saying we would have to go back to our hunter/gatherer roots, but our disposable lifestyles need to be halted.  we could be a civilized planet that makes due with moderation with the basics.  but if we continue the way we are right now, the very, very wealthy people/families (saudi royal family for example) will engineer a mass kill off (big war) so that they can stay in power on a suitable living sphere.  the human race is compareable to a 72 hour bacterial culture in a petri dish.......we will use up our resources within 72 hours, and at the same time be producing toxins that will kill/mutate us (our own poop, our man made chemicals, etc.)  fusion, and a little help from aliens, and we could change everything.  hope is what i've got; that we will figure it out sooner rather than later.  keep learning, knowledge is pure power.
288951
If fossil fuels are going to start being expensive to the level that the economy is severely effected in the near term how will the 1st World retain their life style?  Even the “poor” feels they are entitled to their present life style to the level threaten it; they may riot.  Environmentalists for years have been selling the glory of “Free” Renewable Energy.  True the energy is free for the taking, but capturing, storing and transporting aren’t.   Some say that this “Free” energy may cost as much as 10 times the energy we purchase from the power grid (utilities).  \nAccording to the University of New South Wales in Sydney Australia the theoretical maximum conversion rate of solar cells is 27%.   They were quite proud to reach a 24% rate.  According to the University of Davis using electricity to isolate hydrogen then using the hydrogen to get electricity gets only 40% return of their investment of energy.  This doesn’t include storage, or lose due to leakage.  Speaking of storage to liquefy hydrogen consumes 40% of the energy in hydrogen.  The higher the pressure of hydrogen the greater the leakage.  All of these losses are reflected into the size of ones solar farm.\nThe cost is in the infrastructure that has to be paid up front.  The 3 different financial types relating to energy are: ones that can’t afford to pay for 20 years of their energy consumption up front, those that can, and finally those that choose to invest to create energy for the masses.  With at least the last 2 the numbers have to be run to look at our future energy availability.  They are looking for a return on their investment.\nNot only is the cost of the infrastructure to capture, store, and transport Renewable Energy, but the infrastructure to build it.  Many are caught up in the illegal activity of Enron and Global Crossing.  Their illegal activity didn’t start until they had to hide the fact that they didn’t have return on investment from investing in infrastructure that paying demand couldn’t support.  Their action warns of growing the replacement infrastructure too fast.  \nThe documentary The Cadillac Desert hints at the way to pay for infrastructure.  The movie implies the taxing the areas land paid the bill for bring the water to Los Angeles.  This is only ½ right.  The head of the chamber of commerce, Frank P. Wiggins, marketed Los Angeles world wide.  By populating the area he upped the quantity of water that would be consumed and increased the value of land.  The increase value of land increased the tax collected.  This solution is based on changing the value of land to subsidize the cost of Renewable Energy infrastructure.  \nToday environmentalists say 5% of continental (conus) land mass is required to power the United States with renewable energy.  Granted they assume distributed backyard energy collectors.  The closer to the poles the lower the energy collected.  They may also be envisioning lower conversion rate solar cells due to cost.\nThe build rate is very much a juggling act to get sellable spin-off benefits.  One has to consume enough hydrogen based energy to hydrate the area. According to government figures a family of 4 consumes 300 gallons of water a day.  To create this amount of water one has to consume 5000 KWh a day per family of 4.  Since the wire through isolating hydrogen back to electricity is only 40% return of investment, 12,500 KWh will have to be captured up-front.  This amount of energy is based on a web site energy equivalence calculator, www.shec-labs.com/calc/fuel_energy_equivalence.php and the information supplied from the University of California Davis.\nOne might think that if the 2 international governments quickly donated/invested a quantity of land large enough for the private investor to sit-up and take notice would be adequate to get started.  The way they show transferring land is the correct way to pay for
412691
Our home is headed for ruination. All the reports including one i saw on the news today regarding the fish stocks in the sea needing to be protected from commercial fishing , fossil fuels like gas, oil,  climate change, deforestation.  We will not make it past 2050 without radical change.\n         Revelation 11  v 17.
139345
I've spent an entire semester in university listening to and researching over this issue ... and yes the "peak" has passed ... if you look at the bell curve, we're heading towards (or already are) on the decline side of the curve ... and soon it's going to be all over.  \n\nbasically we need to look into alternative source... and that's where this thing gets tricky.  oil is, for the most part, needed for transportation... and cars and transport means that do not require fossil fuels are either not fast enough or they're too expensive.  so what to do now?\n\nwell.... the answer lies in changing the minds of the human race... we live in an economy-driven world... they worry about making money, dont care where it comes from... \n\nbut the good news is that there's an abundant amount of awareness about all the environmental issues out there... i'm in my 20s and i don't remember this type of awareness happening 5 - 10 years ago... so we're headed in the right direction... question is are we alreadfy too late?  the answer is: only time will tell!\n\nand i can go on and on, but due to lack of time i have to end here ... if i have more time before u close this q i might add more in! \n\noh, but before i go... here's a recommendation (a documentary):\nEnd of suburbia dicrected by gregory greene\n\nit talks about the peak-oil crises!\n\ncheers!
98206
Like most things, the internet gives us miraculas benefits and dangerous possibilities. With the growing energy crisis, we will see more people having the ability to work from home, but this could create a rise in depression and a decline in social skills.\n\nIt will be interesting to watch the development of computers and where the next generation of technology will take us. We will obviously see more voice activated computers, they will be used in more areas of the home, they will be faster, perhaps smaller. They will run most of the aspects of our home (security,entertainment, maintenance, communication). I'm sure there will be aspects we can't even imagine now. We are alreay using them in ways that were inconceivable as little as 12 or 15 years ago. \n\nWe live in interesting times.
1299
The easiest thing would be to switch all cars to hybrid.  Right now.  The technology is here.  Wind power now costs less than coal, but our government keeps giving money to the coal industry because of lobbyists.
281624
IN a convoluted way, you are making a very good point. Isn't it sad that we change only when forced to? Our consumption of oil is/has produced profound changes to our world...a world that we have no choice but to live in. The greenhouse effect is growing daily, the powers-that-be are so short sighted they do nothing in the serious face of reality. WE are in for some very drastic consequences of our use of oil, and the entire planet will pay heavily for it shortly. In our lifetime, absolutely.
90363
You haven't even considered the fact that the Automobile Industry has outsourced jobs away from Americans. America has been lead by a capitalist system and removed most of the mass transit systems such as trains, and trolley cars in their infrastructure. Some cities don't even have bus systems, and or are cutting funding to bus routes. We are not expanding in those obvious areas. This hydrogen fuel system has been available for over 30 years. This isn't a public situation, but an obvious Government decision from the start. I don't believe that there is a shortage of oil; because of the wells being capped off in Texas in the 80's as the largest oil reserve in the World.