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  #9  
Old October 12th 05, 06:10 PM
Rüdiger Klaehn
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I think even when an economic non-fossile energy source like nuclear
fusion or solar power sats becomes available, it will be much more
convenient to store this energy in the form of hydrocarbons for the use
in small vehicles.

Methane for example is much easier to store and more dense than
hydrogen, yet very easy to create from air given a sufficiently cheap
energy source.

So when nuclear fusion becomes available, people will just build huge
fusion plants that convert water and atmospheric CO2 to methane or
methanol. Cars using methane or methanol are available today, and there
is even some research in direct methanol fuel cells. And it should be
relatively easy to convert jet engines to methane. The storage in an
airplane might be a problem, but not nearly as big a problem as with
hydrogen.

So there simply is no need for nuclear powered airplanes, even though
the idea is neat.