Comments by "John Burns" (@johnburns4017) on "Japan's Plan to DESTROY the Price of OIL and GAS!" video.

  1. The idea is initially to use hydrogen in piston ICE engines in heavy vehicles. Then use fuel cells with electric motor drive. The Wankel rotary engine's efficiency rises about 23% when using hydrogen fuels. Mazda are introducing a rotary range extender in their MX-30 EV. They have made provision of running it on hydrogen in the future to make it 100% clean running.
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  2. If this technology becomes widespread the implication is enormous for trains. Expensive to install and maintain, and troublesome, ugly overhead wires can be replaced with hydrogen trains. A number of hydrogen fuel cell trains are operational in Germany.
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  3. Hydrogen for car use still has transportation problems, which battery vehicles do not as electricity runs via cables. So battery appears the better bet for cars - battery technology is improving. For volume consumers like trains and ships, the hydrogen can be produced on site using nuclear produced electricity. Also there are problems about taking hydrogen into train tunnels. Many will not allow combustibles in metro tunnels and stations. It looks like Liverpool may be the first to use hybrid 3rd rail/battery electric trains in metro tunnels.
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  4. 13 years ago I met an interesting American in my local bar in London. He was visiting on business. After a number of drinks he relaxed a lot. He was into shale oil. The levels of shale in northern USA and Canada is amazing. I pointed out it is not economically viable to extract the oil from the shale, as it needs a lot of heat to do so. And also that it depends on the percentage of oil in the shale. He said one or two nuclear power stations dedicated providing the heat can make the USA & Canada 100% self sufficient in energy, with continuing on proven existing transport technology - petro fuels. He said that the USA/Canadian shale needs little heat to extract the oil. In that time renewable energy has advanced brilliantly - and also the technology on its application at the user end. Thankfully, so far has not materialised. But, it is a backup if world energy takes a nose dive.
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  5. So the hydrogen production has to made in the same plant of as the HTTR nuclear plant, producing hydrogen and electricity as a by-product.
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