Renewable Energy and Water Power, the Dummy Version

Generating hydrogen through electrolysis of water

We hear a lot about a "polarized society" these days ("No duh!" as kids used to say). Perhaps one of the reasons for this polarization is intellectual laziness, the tendency to let others do our thinking for us; so we can do more important things like sending pictures of our latest meal to our Instagram feed or sexting with our SO in Snapchat. Really, people, if you devoted as much time to learning as you do to social media... Anyway, speaking of a lack of intellectual rigor, that's the topic of today's mini-rant. You see, we recently turned up a bit of rubbish on DailyTwoCents.com, a small chunk of content published by one Athena Goodlight that she titled "More Water Powered Cars, Please."¹

Goodlight, as she calls herself (she's in reality a homeschooling mom and "prodigal musician" from that home of many a content farming twit, the Philippines), was commenting on a then-recent news story that a team of U. S. Navy scientists has succeeded in extracting hydrogen and carbon dioxide from seawater and turning it into a petroleum substitute. Yep, it's real. Unfortunately, Athena managed to conflate this discovery with the infinitesimally slow growth in hydrogen-powered vehicles:

"We’ve been reading, hearing, about cars running on water. From where I come from, we only see petroleum powered vehicles. If there are water powered cars, it is a rarity. "

So, where had you been "reading... about cars running on water," Athena? Are you confused about the difference between hydrogen and water? No, wait: you fell for the bogus claim that a Japanese company has built a fuel cell that converts water into hydrogen and oxygen through electrolysis and then then burns the hydrogen, all in one onboard unit. For one, that's not the same thing as what the Navy invented and for two, it may be possible but a system like that uses more energy than it produces. The Navy could use nuclear power to make jet fuel for planes on carriers – not to run the ship! Anyway, back to Goodlight and her scientific illiteracy... Athena continues her misinformed misinformation by telling her readers that "If you wish to have a car’s engine converted or modified to run on ordinary tap, you will have to do it on your own or find instructions on turning your car into a hydrogen powered hybrid vehicle from online sources. Right having a hybrid car is a luxury to buy and maintain."

She says that if you want one of these systems, "[You] will have to do it on your own"? Is she kidding us? A little bit -- a very little bit -- of reading in the Smithsonian article suggests that the prototype built by the Navy uses more energy that it produces, and that's only one of many problems. When it comes to using it in passenger cars, the concept borders on the preposterous.

Yes: there are aftermarket fuel cell conversions available, but Goodlight seems to think that they also convert sea water to fuel, which is just plain stupid. Sure, as several fawning comments  suggested, this would be wonderful. It's just not likely to happen any time soon, and when it does it's highly unlikely to happen in the small-scale world of the passenger vehicle. Athena can only dream, though, but meanwhile she's just another Dumbass of the Day, Homeschooling Mom Division (over there with Naima Manal, Kathryn Hatter, and Joannie Ham...)

¹ This website is now defunct, and archive.org's Wayback machine never made a copy of the post. Oh, well, no loss...

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