Are Hydrogen cars really viable?

Question

I know that burning petroleum creates HC, CO, and NOx. But what about hydrogen? It makes water vapor instead right?

So what happens in a large city with say...a hundred thousand or more hydrogen cars running around? How much would this increase the humidity? Water vapor is one of the most powerful of the greenhouse gasses, and we would be artificially pumping that in the air. So would cities like Phoenix, and Vegas have 80% humidity, and an artificial thunderstorm everyday once fuel cells take hold? I am no scientist, but something about this just doesn't seem like a good idea to me.

Talk about potential climate change!

I am open minded to the idea of hydrogen power, and not ranting here. Just seeking answers.

Answer 1

No.  Hydrogen is not a source of energy, it is a storage medium, and not a very good one.  Batteries are better but hydrocarbons will be the most practical for the foreseeable future.

Answer 2

interesting theory, but if it were true, that would mean you would get an artificial thunderstorm in phoenix every time everybody flushed the toilets, took a shower, watered the lawn or washed the car at the same time.

i am guessing it would take a lot more then a bunch of hydrogen powered cars to change the environment.

the point is moot though, the oil companies will never allow hydrogen cars. they will just tell the government to outlaw them or tax them to death.

Answer 3

They're not viable, but not for the reasons you think.

Water vapor is not a concern.  The amount of water vapor in the atmosphere is dependent on the atmospheric temperature.  We can emit as much water vapor as we want and it will have no effect on global warming.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenhouse_...

However, hydrogen cars have serious problems with fuel source and transportation and storage infrastructure, as I discuss in this wiki article:

http://greenhome.huddler.com/wiki/hydrog...

Answer 4

Gasoline and diesel fuel are hydrocarbons.  On being burned in an engine, the carbon oxidizes to carbon dioxide, and the hydrogen oxidizes to water.  Thus any engine's exhaust consists principally of water vapor already--about 80%, in fact.  So we're already adding a great deal of water to the atmosphere, with minimal effect.

Beyond that, hydrogen cars aren't viable because there's no hydrogen with which to fuel them.  The hydrogen you buy in tanks from the welding-gas depot comes from natural gas that's been heated until the carbon falls out.  To produce hydrogen in quantities suitable for fueling a large fleet of motor vehicles we'd need large electrolysis plants, which do not exist now and are not contemplated because they'd encounter significant environmental and engineering problems (water dissociation isn't quite as clean as you'd imagine, and requires enormous amounts of electric power.)

If there's going to be a great revolution in privately-owned motor vehicles, it won't be with hydrogen.