Aug 11
7

Non renewable energy resources include all of the following EXCEPT?

2 Comments

A* coal.
B* hydrogen fuel cells.
C* oil.
D* uranium.

Tags: , , , , ,

This entry was posted on August 7, 2011 at 4:41 am. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Posted in Uncategorized by admin 2 Comments

2 Responses to "Non renewable energy resources include all of the following EXCEPT?"

  • Stephen McNeil says:
    August 7, 2011 at 4:41 am

    Strictly speaking, the answer is E) none of the above. Fuel cells are made of things like platinum and proton exchange membranes derived from petroleum feedstocks. So the fuel cells themselves are made from non-renewable sources.

    However, the fuel cell itself isn’t the energy resource, any more than is the engine you burn the gasoline. The hydrogen used to run the fuel cell is the resource. So let’s rewrite the question so that it’s asking what its asker presumably intended, and make it say B) hydrogen instead.

    The answer it still E) none of the above. Ideally, you can get H2 from water, which is what the H2 turns into when you run it through the cell, so it would be renewable if that’s what we actually did. But we don’t. We still get H2 by heating the crap out of non-renewable fossil fuels, usually using non-renewable energy to run the reaction. So right now, hydrogen isn’t renewable.

    Eventually it will be, but we need to invent far more efficient photovoltaic colar cells first. And before we can use it as a competitive energy source, we still need to increase efficiency and lower the cost of the fuel cells, and dramatically improve hydrogen storage capacity.

    Whoever asked you the question thinks the answer is B). You should point out that the question needs to be rewritten before that’s actually true, and that simply waving your hands and saying "hydrogen = renewable = good" is a gross oversimplification of what’s actually going on in an energy economy.

  • nampcjr says:
    August 7, 2011 at 4:41 am

    B. Hydrogen Fuel Cells

Leave a Comment

CommentLuv badge

This site uses KeywordLuv. Enter YourName@YourKeywords in the Name field to take advantage.

 
Performance Optimization WordPress Plugins by W3 EDGE

Switch to our mobile site


Powered by WordPress Lab
Powered by Yahoo! Answers