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Re: [cdn-nucl-l] " Platinum crisis "
Indeed. In this light, does anyone know of a concise, well written (ie
something a student could get into), write up on the ins and outs of the
various energy source / delivery schemes? Stuff like the energy, materials
requirements from birth to grave for solar, nuclear....etc. Life cycle
costs. You know, the bare facts when it comes to making choices on energy
solutions. What is the real, full cost of making my home energy
efficient? And so on.
Case in point: I drive a 13 year old car with 340,000 km on it. It passes
the clean air test - just. A new car would run MUCH cleaner. Should I
trade it in? This is a car with a fully galvanized body and a reputation
for longevity. I can see it lasting longer than me, with proper
maintenance (both the car and me). What is the true cost (pollution
caused, energy used, resources squandered...) in the production of a new
car? Ditto for replacing my house windows with triple pane glass, etc.
Bill
At 08:47 AM 9/17/2003 -0400, you wrote:
>Interesting commentary !
>
> Jaro
>^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
>
>http://www.newscientist.com/opinion/opletters.jsp?id=ns24128
>Platinum crisis
>
>In your special report, hydrogen was suggested as a way to avert an
>impending energy crisis (16 August, p 8). However, using hydrogen in fuel
>cells for mobile applications requires a significant amount of platinum
>catalyst to combine hydrogen and oxygen at low temperatures to produce
>power.
>
>But even if only 1 million fuel cell cars were built per year, each with
>between 70 and 140 grams of platinum, the worldwide supply of platinum would
>be insufficient.
>
>Esmond Newson
>Schaffhausen, Switzerland
Bill Garland http://engphys.mcmaster.ca/faculty_staff/faculty/garland/
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