It takes 26 gallons of hydrogen at 150 bars of pressure for the equivalent amount of energy stored in a gallon of gasoline.

This article says they're looking at $1.50 in costs per liter of hydrogen. Assuming no profit margin (which is just another way of saying "produced on subsidiary or at a loss"), thats 3.785 liters per gallon, or

98.41 liters of hydrogen to replace one gallon of gasoline, at a baseline cost of $147.615

The average mpg of a modern u.s. car is about 25 miles. Assuming this translates over for hydrogen (it won't), you will be paying $5.9046 per mile.

Most workers live within 25 miles of there jobs, and average travel time is about 30 minutes (26~) per day. Even assuming that this accounts for total distance travelled (15 miles one way, and 15 miles back), you're looking at You're looking at $177.138/day in travel costs.

Cities and towns would have to end up much more dense to accomodate such a change, with a lot more public transportation or subsidized semi-private transport (think taxis that ferry-around small groups, instead of the public bus).

But suppose this system is significantly inefficient because it is a prototype. Suppose they can get it down to fifty cents per liter of hydrogen.

You're still looking at $49.205 for a typical gallon of gas, or or about $1.9682 a mile.

Comparatively, at $4.30 here, we pay $0.172 a mile.

So, assuming you use about a gallon of gas a day (maybe even a little more) going just to and from work, assuming you want to stay in the $5 range, you're looking at your work being no more than half a mile away from where you live.

Basically we'd have to move to urban sprawl, stack and pack, or factory-town models, or pair this with nuclear to bring down the cost of electricity.

And even then they'd likely use these same calculations to justify rationing and artificially limiting or restricting people's right to travel.

Edit: Apparently I'm a fucking idiot, and misread kg as liters.

1kg of hydrogen, is 3.337 gallons of hydrogen, liquid. Or 7.699 kg of liquid hydrogen to replace one gallon of gasoline. At $1.50 a kg, thats $11.5487 "per gallon" of traditional fuel, still pretty crazy. At our fifty cents per kilogram hypothetical efficiency mark, thats $3.8495, still not great, but survivable.

At the more reasonable $1 per kilogram of hydrogen, we'd be looking at 'gas' prices of $7.7-$8 "per gallon".

According to a couple sites

""" Break down the per-gallon price of gasoline. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the price of crude oil accounts for about 67 percent of the per-gallon gas price. Another 7 percent is based on the price to refine crude. Distribution and marketing account for 11 percent, and the remaining 15 percent comes from taxes. Keep in mind these percentages can change, particularly because each state has a different gas tax.

Divide the day's crude oil price by 42. One barrel of crude contains 42 gallons. This will tell you the dollar amount per gallon of refined gasoline attributed to crude. For example, if crude oil is $100 per barrel, then about $2.38 of the price of a gallon of gas comes from the crude price. """

So by taking these prices and multiplying by 42, we can get back the cost of a barrel of oil, really in this case a oil-barrel-equivalent (OBE) of energy, because this is what the world economy runs on.

At the low end, of $3.8495 for a gallon-of-gas-equivalent (GGE) of water, times 42, we're looking at $161.679 OBE, goodbye brent crude.

At the $7.7-8 dollar end of the curve, we're looking at $323.4 per barrel-equivalent of energy, up to $336.

This ignores the cost of the purified water, or filter for purifying it, that I assume would be required. It also ignores the taxes, distributor and other middle man fees, etc.

Basically it would still be the end of the world as we know it.

On a system like this, society would limp along for another decade, maybe two, with massive permanent stagflation, rampant crime, and large scale proxy-wars for resource control, engaged in by all major countries.

Industrial output would suffer enormously because a LOT of industrial processes rely on oil, not just cars. Think heavy machine lubricants, high pressure hydraulic fluid, complex petrochemical processes, etc. Oil isn't just for moving vehicles, you know? These output products would have to be diluted, the same way they denature gasoline with ethanol. Likewise synthetics, probably energy intensive to make, would need invented.

Basically this still doesn't work unless theres a huge ramp up in coal extraction or nuclear energy production.

I got 100% 15 years ago. Doesn’t matter till the evil cabal is gone.