Just as things begin to heat up with the adoption of hydrogen as tomorrow's fuel the worry creeps in that fuel cell technology is going to be like the browser wars between Microsoft Inc. and Netscape Communications.
A feud that ended with a whimper when finally, somebody big blew into town (Time Warner), bought out Netscape and eventually shut the company and it's web browser down at version 7.
We have the boys and girls at Netscape to thank for such fine things as RSS feeds along with an open source browser called Mozilla given a final push by Time Warner with a couple of million dollars. After achieving an 85 per cent share of the browser market before Microsoft even had a strategy the death of such an enterprise is disturbing.
Fossil vs. hydrogen fuels still look very much like Microsoft vs. Netscape in that one implementation has deeper pockets in which to survive and thrive despite an apparent will in the market that would have contested such a loose foothold at the outset. Part of that is ownership. Ownership of the infrastructure. Ownership of the money. Does that sound at all like the basis of an anti-trust lawsuit? Maybe not, but it sure looks like somebody can bundle the browser with the computer and get away with it and call it consumer choice.
Shell Hydrogen
Shell Hydrogen -- Consumer Choice Drives Future
In fossil vs. hydrogen the problem exists in fossil enabling technology which 'reforms' the fuel to extract the hydrogen from it before it hits the anode. This enabling technology also comes with another caveat. The fuel cell must be different from one that runs on pure hydrogen, effectively eliminating customer choice for the life of the vehicle or home energy system. This situation exists because Proton Exchange Membranes (PEM Fuel Cells) that run on 99.99 per cent pure hydrogen can not run with a less pure fuel that would result with Hitest (hydrogen and natural gas for combustion), methanol, ethanol, or gasoline.
Yahoo! News - Officials say Calfornia governor's 'hydrogen highway' is realistic by 2010
Reformers aren't the problem. It is the people who use them.
BETA vs. VHS anyone?
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