H2 Bus

[rusty]

Craig, The body of the bus was made by a boat builder back east somewhere. It is one piece composite of some sort. The young engineers that are building the bus are having the time of their lives. That would be a fun project to undertake. The company that is doing it are being funded by some government grants. They put the bus up on a hoist and let us check it out, was a fun afternoon.

Wayne

[rusty]

Another interesting thing about the bus for you engine swap guys. The electric motor and the hydrogen generator can be taken out in less than 30 minutes.It is held in with 4 bolts and sets in its own frame and is removed with the help of a forklift

[BG6]

Hydrogen is a renewable resource, and can be made just about ANYWHERE that you can get water and electricity.  If you are near a nuclear power plant, you have a one-stop-shop for fuel -- the plant purifies water for cooling, generates electricity, electrolysis takes the H2 out of the pure water after it's been used, the electricity compresses the gas.

The soot from burning H2 is water vapor.

I wouldn't want a composite bus, though.  They are not crashworthy, and as they break up, they create lots of sharp edges.

[circusboy90210]

completely erroneous , hydrogen cost's way more in energy that you ever get out of it in return. see the law of conservation of energy. this bus is really a nat gas bus that transforms and looses all kinds of energy in the processes. even if it drew electricity to run a h2 generator the line losses to get the power there from a nuke facility are tremendous. just running straight nat gas into a combustion engine is way more productive.

[JohnEd]

Circus,

I think you are right about that energy conservation thing.  i don't know and you are sounding a little like a BS in Engineering of one flavor or another.  Can't debate any of those technical/scientific points.  That being said, I think you might have missed the point.  That bus is about pollution created by combusting hydrocarbons.....not MPG.  Hydro, Geo and Nuc are all carbon free so H made with that energy won't hurt the planet.  The entire country of France consumes absolutely no OIL to generate Lectricity.  They do it all with Nuc Fision.  Whats more, they have a lot of soft coal over there but their decision was driven by global warming and atmosphere polution.  Way back then these guys had our back!  No joke!  It can be done!

About that energy in ANWR.  The amt of oil that ANWR would possibly produce, according to BO, is 6 months worth of USA consumption....total.  Here again, I didn't measure it.  What I do know is that 6 more months of pollution at our current rate is something to be avoided.  But, if we are bent on choking ourselves and every other living soul on the planet to death, then I suggest we head right into "Clean Coal" and get it over quick(er).

I am already on record as being in favor of exploiting every scrap of energy this planet has to offer.  All of it!  Truly I am.  Oil, gas coal, Geo therm, hydro, wind, solar, tidal, fusion, fission or whatever comes up.  Just a couple simple points before you start:  You must clean up you own mess.  You can't poison or otherwise kill every man woman and CHILD on the planet doing so.  Maybe under penalty of death would do it.  Now the Pope cleaned up the Priesthood way back in the day with three simple oaths and maybe we could try that with all the attorneys.... Those were: 1) chastity 2) obedience and last but not least....3) POVERTY.  That ought to do it.  Will Rogers had a poignant observation:  He pointed out that there was a "new fangled device that science had come up with.  They call it the polygraph and it actually tells you if a person is lying after you strap the guy into this harness and connect these wires".  He went on to observe that when those business execs testify before congress the only thing those birds are strapped into is a silk shirt.  HUMMMMM!  Will R. had a lot of things right.

I think the crux of the problem is that one faction is saying "you have to stop poisoning the planet till you can prove sustainability of the ecosystem."  Current evidence and science is in-arguably proving that we are heading towards a tipping point.  The other side is saying "you can't tell me what to do or not do.  I don't care how many of us die, I will never admit that I had anything to do with it".  And that is a problem.

About Pelosi:  Civics 101.  Representative form of government.  It isn't enuf to just squall "it isn't FAIR"...You need a majority and you have to follow the rules of descent.  Laws and that stuff.  You just can't simply start shooting people with whom you disagree.  Pelosi was elected by her constituents to represent them and they were a majority.  The majority in the congress elected her to represent their will in many regards of the governance of the Congress.  She is elected "twice" by a majority.  She is REALLY elected....get over that!  Disagree with her positions and argue your own but don't lament our system of government or argue its change by any form that isn't acceptable by the standard of the constitution.  I feel strongly about this, as you may have detected, but absolutely none of what I have said is "political".  Trust me on this point....i can DO political and this ain't it.

Be well,

John the free market conservative

John316,

Thank you!

John

heard a great quote this afternoon:  There are no STUPID questions, but there sure are a hel# of a lot of inquisitive idiots running around loose".  Wadaya think?

[Jeremy]

Let's not have yet another discussion on hydrogen-powered vehicles here - it's been done to death before and only succeeds in exposing both sides of the argument as having too much opinion based on too little knowledge. As far as nuclear-powered buses are concerned, it's been done before - just watch this movie:



On the subject of composite-built structures:- crash worthiness is an interesting point - whilst it's true that composites won't crumple like steel that doesn't necessarily mean you don't want to be in a composite structure in an accident, whether it be a Formula 1 car or a bulletproof vest. Having said that there is a scene in 'Fatal Attraction' where a Lotus Esprint goes off a bridge and lands on it's nose. The impact would have shortened a steel car by several feet, but the Lotus barely seems to sustain any damage - with the consequence that far more energy must be transferred to the occupants

Jeremy

[NewbeeMC9]

I recall that nuke bus movie from the 70's,  I liked the self changing tires.

The H2 Bus there only used H2 and plug in at night.


Also on feeble memory of what was being said outside,  the hydrogen fuel station they set up is purchasing H2 from a Welding Gas house who was part of the group,   Air Liquide I believe, and it is already their business.  Now I believe they said Air Liquide bought the H2 from somewhere else that was a by-product of a manufacturing process.  Again, hearsay without actual knowledge.

It will be running a route in Columbia to take real world data so then we can see how it goes.

[circusboy90210]

bo= body odor and yes something stinks, we have a liar in office. he's lied about his birthplace and many other things..(not telling the truth is the same as lieing.) anwar is way more that 6 months of oil. saying that anwar is only 6 months is akin to saying alieska is only 2 weeks . caribou actually thrived more after they built the pipeline , at the time it was say-ed to going to kill wildlife. see what utter lies there are. and one person even if doubly elected.... (totalbs) should not have the power to keep things from coming to vote that she knows will pass.  that is not democratic in thought process, neither is using bad science to push political agenda.
the energy required to make h2 usually is 25 time more than it creates, and hydrocarbons being burnt directly in an internal combustion engine create far less impact , if it can be proved that they indeed do as much harm as noted. (only 20% of petroleum is used by vehicles.) If anything undersea gas vents, proximity to the sun, solar flares, decomposing plant matter, volcanoes, ant hills,  and flatulence are far worse concerns than anything than puny man kind can create. Look at the other planets that are experiencing climate change and have no human activity, nor any signs of life. there are currently 80,000  active volcanoes and who know how many undersea gas vents.
Ocean temperatures have been skewed since noaa tossed in many numerous amounts of subsurface temperature sensors, this has also gone towards biasing temperature readings as Benjamin Franklin was the only one before this to keep somewhat accurate readings while he was discovering the gulf stream. so you see this is not exactly accurate science. science being the exact study of anything.
If bo was really trying to solve things , (if there is a problem, we have suffered 3 worst winters in quite a while, look outside) , he would fund the exploration of the ocean floor for Nat gas deposits of which there are 400 million trillion cu ft of it. clean coal tech should be explored and given to the Chinese in exchange for excusing our debt, ( the real culprits ) (we are the Saudi Arabia of coal.), exploring as much as possible for petroleum in our own lands, we have many deposits that are off limits because of arbitrary reasons put forth by a government that does not follow their own doctrine,(let the people decide , it's called Democracy). 
Mother nature is far more powerfull than we give credit for on many matters but we sure do understand her destructive power when it comes to hurricanes, and earthquakes. Why is it that certain people think that we can overpower her in other areas? totally pompus to think that man could out do nature in most anything, (overpowering the magneto sphere aside, earths magnetic power is relatively weak. but speaking of which why can't we harness the power of the earth's other powers like deep deep Geo,  techtonic creep, earth quakes. wind kills birds hydrogen really does not work, read the piece in motor trend.) Don't be biased towards one field of thinking , our planet is way too complex to think that a simple cause and effect relationship is going to effect so much change.
Let al gore give up his profit motive and see how much ranting and raving he does. If he was really genuinely caring he would not have set up various corporations to make money off first world nations that per person pollute less than anyone. 3rd world nations boiling water with wood and using primitive techniques for just about everything pollute way more per person and in total period because many of the products we make here also travel around the world to save other places from having to wreak havoc to create the things they need in life.
Bottled water is actually a good thing since plastics are made from Nat gas it traps this thing that is 24 times worse than co2 in the ground for 500 year till it begins to degrade. so you see the hypocrisy in the global warming crowd. they never tell the whole truth, which is a lie, so that they can shed some of the shame they feel for being part of the winning team.

[gumpy]

I looked at their website. They have one on there that's not painted all green. There's a map that shows it being moved from Denver to Columbia. I'm certain that's the bus I saw on the flatbed going East through Nebraska (although the map shows it going through Kansas).

Would love to see it up close and personal.

[NewbeeMC9]

I looked at their website. They have one on there that's not painted all green. There's a map that shows it being moved from Denver to Columbia. I'm certain that's the bus I saw on the flatbed going East through Nebraska (although the map shows it going through Kansas).

Would love to see it up close and personal.

Was very quiet, and only had a a slight ozone like odor behind it.  Can see the benefit of that in a crowded urban area.  Both doors had good handicap access with built in ramps at the doors. I got to ride a H2 powered Segway too .  Rode in a H2 powered Chevy Silverado 4x4, it had IC engine.    Mercedes, Kia, Honda, and dodge were there also.   The Kia was said to have a 400+ mile range on a tank.

In a few months you will be able to ride it around columbia

[JohnEd]

Circus Boy,

We are done here!  Consider yourself to have had the last word.

[Len Silva]

John,

You are wasting too much energy over nothing.  Conservation is the key.

[circusboy90210]

no conservation and drilling is the key. 

[happycamperbrat]

I just saw one today in Arroyo Grande, California (in San Luis Obispo county). The one I saw looked like a Gillig with a VW van on the roof. On the "vw van" it said Electric H2

[Singing Land Cruiser]

One could prop this bus up or beat this bus up. All I know is that they did one hell of a job making a very nice bus. All the Best, M&C