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Roger Billings' Hydrogen Projects
Posted with permission
From: Jay Potter
Sent: Monday, September 30, 2002 3:16 AM
Subject: RE: Energy Suppression -- An Invisible Galaxy of Inventions
Sterling,
I read the article
that you sent with great interest. I was very surprised to find reference to Roger Billings
and his hydrogen products mentioned. I work with Roger at the International Academy of
Science.
Yes he did develop a
hydrogen car than used a metal hydride to store the hydrogen. Yes it works. The
hydride keeps the pressure of the hydrogen low enough that it is not explosive yet have lots of
fuel capacity. He can store the same amount of gas in the low pressure metal hydride as the
same volume pressure tank could at 4,000 psi. He built the first hydrogen powered car as a
science fair project and has converted 24 vehicles to hydrogen, including large busses. His
latest vehicle was a hydrogen powered fuel cell car. It was demonstrated about 12 years
ago. The fuel cell is quite small and runs at about 85% efficient. (much smaller and
more efficient than conventional fuel cells) There is just enough waste heat to cause the metal
hydrides in the storage system to release additional hydrogen to keep the system running.
Between the storage capacity and the efficiency of the fuel cell, the car can get about 350 miles
on a single charge. The vehicle is on display at the International Academy of Science.
Two years ago, we
exhibited at Comdex (a Computer show in Las Vegas) an exhibit called "home of the
future". We had the car there then. It was really interesting as the booth next
to us was the Mercedes booth. They were showing off the "world's first hydrogen powered
fuel cell car" built in 1998. Of course our vehicle predated it by almost 10
years. It is also interesting that the Mercedes engineers came to the Academy to learn how
to build the fuel cell vehicle. They still didn't get it right. The reaction of the
sales people there was also interesting, they KNEW that theirs was the first fuel cell powered
vehicle even when they could see the earlier car and the supporting documentation.
In Roger Billings'
case, the thing that has kept the product from the market is funding. He has put about 25
million of his own funds into the projects over the years. He feels that in a mass
production basis, the fuel cell could be produced for a similar cost as a standard gasoline
engine. Because of the efficiencies and today's cost to produce the hydrogen, the equivalent
energy cost to operate would be about $0.50 per gallon of gasoline.
He is also working on
a hydrogen reformer to efficiently convert natural gas into hydrogen on a on-demand basis.
This would be ideal for fueling stations so they wouldn't have to worry about storing hydrogen in
tanks.
The only conspiracy
would be lack of funding. The technology is here and available for licensing. I give
tours on a regular basis to those that are interested.
Jay
FeedbackVouching for Record
Regassification Plans Vision is Pathetic
International Academy of Science
See also
Page posted by SDA Sept. 30, 2002 Last updated February 03, 2008 |
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