yeah.
electrolysis. It kind of needs electricity. which needs fossil fuels. bit of a catch-22 really.

Also, it only works at small scale. At large scale (ie to fuel any significant number of cars on the roads) you have to do catalytic cracking of hydrocarbons. Which a) needs hydrocarbons in the first place just as a raw material, so why not just burn them and b) is carried out at about 1000 degrees C, which kind of uses a lot of energy and has a bit of a wee carbon footprint.

the whole concept is fundamentally fucked, but that's never stopped people before.
( the mighty badger Aphrodite, on a bar stool, by your side, Fri 12 Jun 2009, 12:57, archived)