Hi Brian...
Just a little more info on this... there is a report that was funded by General Motors that proclaimed that we are going to become a hydrogen based society. I couldnt find a link to the GM report, but found another that was and is interesting.
I have included a link to a report that says the conclusions drawn by the GM report is not as correct as some might think. The report is a little wordy and ignoring the math, filled with good information none the less.
I have seen this clip and yes, a plug and play “converter” for your car would be wonderful however, besides the design issues associated with the interface into a modern vehicle platform (which in my opinion would be the fun part... and not so totally difficult to develop), there is a complete infrastructure in place that once rendered useless a global economic meltdown would in sue... The Alternative fuels industry has had plenty of interface capable systems for converting vehicles (with millions of dollars spent on this stuff) and every time this industry gets knocked back by the heavy burden of the infrastructure in place with very little desire to fund growth particularly in the fueling sector.
So, to ask 3 of what can be many questions.... 1. How do we balance the economic impacts vs. the economic benefits. 2. How do we regulate the potential impact to core resources, and 3. How can the Governments around the world/Large Multi National companies save face and keep all of their stockholders happy in the face of obsolescing fleets of delivery trucks, tanker ships, refineries, and pipelines (and the big profits flowing into those guys right now).
We answer those 3 questions and I am sure that us design guys can get busy on this... hahaha.
In any event, these are some of the things that I and my new company are starting to deal with and hopefully in a year I plan to have a new division to deal with the international demands of "other than gasoline/diesel fuel usage".
I hope this is something you find useful and interesting.
Butch
http://www.efcf.com/reports/hydrogen_economy.pdf