According to the link you provided:
# Platinum availability for fuel cell vehicles - Modelling of likely future platinum demand under different scenarios of fuel cell vehicle penetration suggests platinum availability should not be a constraint to the introduction of fuel cell cars. But this result is sensitive to assumptions about the platinum content of fuel cell engines, the growth in worldwide car sales and the rate at which platinum mining can be increased.
# Platinum costs for fuel cell vehicles - The volatile price of platinum may cause difficulties for fuel cell vehicle developers, although recent trends towards greater recycling of platinum should help to stabilise prices and reduce supply uncertainties. At current platinum prices and projected loadings, the platinum component would cost only 3% of the total target cost of a fuel cell engine ($50/kW).
I'm seeing less of a problem than you forecast, but certainly you raise a valid concern about long term availability and price for the needed platinum. And relative to the cost of fuel, the cost of platinum may be of marginal significance over the long term.
Incidentally, many of the buses in my community are now hydrogen fuel-cell. They are whisper quiet, too.
As far as Ford is concerned, I don't think they're even investing in hybrid-electrics, letting GM go first, while Honda is selling Hydrogen cars in California.
OK. 200 over three years to a select few.
We need 200-Million for the US alone.
It's scale I'm considering.
I'm not knocking the Fuel cell concept, I'm saying that there isn't enough cheap Platinum to scale the concept up to world-wide use. That is to say, not everyone will be able to have a hydrogen car, in the way that everyone has access to internal combustion cars.
They will most certainly be produced in larger numbers, but Platinum price and supply are going to prove an insurmountable wall.
--mf
# Platinum costs for fuel cell vehicles - The volatile price of platinum may cause difficulties for fuel cell vehicle developers, although recent trends towards greater recycling of platinum should help to stabilise prices and reduce supply uncertainties. At current platinum prices and projected loadings, the platinum component would cost only 3% of the total target cost of a fuel cell engine ($50/kW).
Read further into that report, and you'll see that that point is projected around 2030. Do we have that kind of time? Do we have that kind of money in the meantime, while the process is still expensive? The average service sector worker simply doesn't.
I'd like to be totally wrong. I started looking at this with optimism, but, looking at Platinum supplies, the future of Platinum mining, and the present state of Platinum recycling, and my optimism dimmed considerably.
When this report was written a few years back, Platinum was $950.00 per ounce, and they anticipated volatility hovering around that price. It's now more than double that and rising. So, the cost analysis in the report needs to be brought forward with the new numbers.
--mf
You can always throw up barriers and claim they are insurmountable, the idea that we won't make any technological advances until 2030 seems strained as well.
Things are going to change and a lot fewer people may be driving a lot fewer miles in the future, no doubt about that and that is probably a good thing.
Here is the bottom line, though, we need hemp, and we need it to survive.
Commenting by HaloScan
