High performance engine

Followers of Line in the Dust are aware that I am not convinced that hydrogen fuel cells represent the future of low carbon, energy-efficient transportation, principally because, despite whatever hypothetical arguments are made about the cleanliness of hydrogen as a fuel when addressed in a vacuum (hydrogen interacts with oxygen to release energy and become water), all of the hype ignores the necessary and indispensable step of creating the hydrogen fuel itself, a process that itself requires the use of energy (generally fossil fuel-based energy) and, often, natural gas as the source of hydrogen. Until there is progress on that front, all of the substantial and practical issues associated with the hydrogen fuel cells themselves, from cost to efficiency to capacity, are just noise.

Because it's all about the fuel, people.

Nevertheless, in the interest of keeping you informed, this Discover magazine article (I know, pop science, but a credulous audience is essential on this topic, anyway) points to new technology that would use nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes as catalysts to trigger the reactions between the hydrogen and oxygen. The need for prohibitively expensive platinum tubes would be eliminated, reducing costs significantly. Moreover, the carbon nanotubes are four times more efficient and longer-lasting.

So there you go. The future is just around the corner.