Question

 Basic Facts:

 USA Ethanol subsidy rate (pre-2012) =-58 billion/year (at S0.45/gallon of ethanol).

 Cost of current Hydrogen Fuel cell system = 7000/car. Rest of "glider" is same as any regular car.

 Current cost of commercial hydrogen-production system for service station =-S1,000,000 (ca. 120 cars/day: Nat. Acad. Eng- 2004).

 Number of service stations in USA = 120,000 (in 2002; last census)

 a. The Infrastructure

 Hydrogen can be produced from "reformers" that currently use Natural Gas (stripping off the carbon atom). Home units (from Honda in California) are about S5000;

 but the main investment would be service stations. In the "chicken-and-egg" situation, one would desire that at least 25% of America's service stations could offer Hydrogen refueling.

 (1) What would it cost to add full-scale hydrogen delivery to 25% of America's service stations using existing pricing/technology?

 (2) What would be the equivalent "Years of Ethanol Subsidy" if these funds were diverted to this Hydrogen-infrastructure program?

 b. Subsidize Hydrogen Fuel-cell systems

 (1) If a decade's (10 years) amount of pre-2012 Ethanol subsidy had instead directed toward providing "free" fuel-cells for Hydrogen-cars; how many Hydrogen cars would have been on the road by 2020?

 (2) If the Federal Reserve program in 2010 for "offsetting recession" (S600 billion of “cash created from thin air") had been instead put into (a) First, installing the Hydrogen-infrastructure (part "a", which you did just above), THEN, after deducting that cost, providing "free" fuel-cells for Hydrogen-cars; how many Hydrogen cars could have been put on the road?

 Part 5: Putting it all together

 True, the above suite of calculations was a biased analysis and ignores many other factors. However, based partly on what you've computed and analyzed, what conclusions and recommendations would you make for the Short-term, and for the Long-term of USA vehicle systems? And How we should make that happen?

Answer 1