DougM

Palladium: The New Platinum

Um...palladium, along with platinum and rhodium are *already* used in catalytic converters. Also, note that the reactions are catalyzed by the exposed surface area, so typically they're plated around ceramic cores. In 2007 nano-technology was introduced to reduce the amount of metal needed for a given catalytic surface area. Re. cold fusion, don't hold your breath. Re. hydrogen storage, this presupposes that we ever transition to hydrogen as a fuel. This is extremely unlikely due to the lack of credible hydrogen sources (most is produced from nat gas), the difficulty of transporting hydrogen by pipeline (the small molecules escape too easily), the high cost of hydrogen vehicles, and because there are too many easier ways to use any new hydrogen source from, say, nuclear or renewable power, such as replacing nat gas in oil refineries, fertilizer production, coal or biomass gassification, synthetic liquid fuels.