yeah, poor choice of words, they call the process of high energy extraction (boiling and sparking with electricity, the reaction phase, which does have to be contained or controlled in an environment where it can be repeativitly conducted...
It wasn't new, the big players were already talking about hydrogen in the past, including Honda. But this time Honda is playing a timing game to take advantage of high oil price. Say, hey guys we understand you're having problem with oil crisis right now. Look guys! We do have solution for you.
just like with the demand on the hybrids, the first manufactures to start the demand and fulfill the demand will secure a ashuge order and back order flow for years to come... Hyundai? Honda? Dihatsu? which?
Honda admitted their mistake with the Hybrid. In people mind Hybrid is Toyota Prius. Now, they want in people mind when talking about Hydrogen is Honda. Let see...
What we need, are the Investment Banks to finance the purchase of the autos to people with less than stellar credit scores. Then, they'll be wide distribution. Of course, they'd want to separate the paper into tranches, and market them in packages rated by the Agencies, and insured by the monolines. Because Americans are in love with their cars, and since most people don't have homes anymore, their cars will be their greatest investment. The paper will be highly coveted, and find it's AAA way into pensions and money markets everywhere. I feel so much better.
Charging a plug in hybrid system ( PHEV basically a gasoline hybrid with an additional larger rechargeable supplemental battery) will get you about 50 miles for $1 of electricity, that is about 4 to 16 times cheaper than gasoline at $4/gal. The source of electricity generation in the US is about 70% combined coal, gas and oil, 20% nuclear and 7% hydro and 3% renewables. In France it is about 75% nuclear. Hopefully the US could generate much more energy from renewables (solar, wind, tidal) and reduce the dependence on fossil fuel. As referenced above, hydrogen production is currently 95% fossil fueled. The advantage of a plug in hybrid is that you can charge it pretty much anywhere there is electricity. The limitation is range (about 50 miles) before falling back on gasoline. The cost is about $10K above a standard hybrid, but should come down with mass production of lithium ion batteries.
That's all very true with regards to current production of Hydrogen. However, a primary reason hydrogen from electrolysis is more expensive is because we are using fossil fuels to generate the electricity for electrolysis. The total efficiency for delivering electricity generated by fossil fuels is only about 30%. However electrolysis alone can be very efficient, above 90%) so it is likely that as long as fossil fuels continue to be the main energy source for electricity generation we will continue to produce hydrogen using fossil fuels such as oil, natural gas and coal. However, in the future, as we move away from fossil fuels for power generation, electrolysis carried out in conjunction with power generation should naturally become the dominant process for producing hydrogen and has the advantage of producing high-purity hydrogen from water, and oxygen as a useful by-product. This will likely be done at the same site as power generation thus avoiding the losses in transmission lines which are one of the primary sources of electric power generation inefficiency. To the extent that hydrogen is produced from fossil fuels the conversion of the fossil fuel to thermal energy is reduced. Obviously it is desirable to move away from using fossil fuels to produce hydrogen if we are to move in the direction of the so called "hydrogen economy" -- a term coined by J.O'M. Bockris many years ago , the controversial electrochemist/academic recently retired from Texas A&M.
Ex-CIA Chief James Woolsey Gives Hydrogen Hell http://www.autobloggreen.com/2008/03/27/ex-cia-chief-woolsey-gives-hydrogen-hell/