H2O power vehicle technology?

Question

It's officially proven that we have the technology to run cars off water, or other sources besides Oil.

So why hasn't this happened?

Answer 1

Currently the technology is not perfected for mainstream use and is too expensive. For starters there have been several problems with the storage of hydrogen. It must be stored at very cold temperature to be kept in a liquid state and it must be kept in a liquid state to be transported effectively. Currently this technology is not available or it is very expensive (from my understanding). Secondly, the cost of updating our infrastructure is an issue. I have heard conflicting studies on this. Several sources say it would cost billions of dollars to convert our current gas infrastructure, while other sources say the existing infrastructure only needs slight modification to handle hydrogen fuel. Either way, its a struggle of "what comes first? The chicken or the egg?" The infrastructure won't change without a demand for the new system (hydrogen vehicles on the road) and nobody will buy a hydrogen car without a fueling station that is accessible. I can't get a hydrogen car even if I could afford one, because there is not a hydrogen station anywhere near me. The change can and will come, just like it did with the first automobiles, but its not going to happen overnight.

Furthermore, you have to realize that hydrogen is not a naturally occurring element. It must be created through electrolysis of water (an electrical current is sent through water which causes the H atom to split from the O atoms). This requires electricity which comes from other energy sources such as coal plants or nuclear plants. So basically, hydrogen works as an energy storage system and, when used in a fuel cell, it can be converted into energy similar to how a battery works (you use energy to break hydrogen from oxygen, then that same energy is expelled when the two elements are recombined in the fuel cell). So really, converting to hydrogen is only half the process. We would still need to convert how we produce the energy to get away from oil and coal. By the way I have heard that there is enough solar energy in the state of Nevada alone to produce all the hydrogen our country would need. But there are also several other fuels pushing to become the replacement to gas. Electric cars are an option, although again this has the same problem as hydrogen (the energy comes from somewhere and right now its all fossil fuels). Another big new energy is ethanol and currently ethanol is being pushed as the solution. To me this makes no sense (make energy from food when people are starving and food prices are jumping higher and higher?) and ultimately its a short term fix to a long term problem. Ethanol may be cleaner than oil, but its not even comparable to hydrogen, which is ZERO emmission and infinately available (hydrogen is the most abundant element on the planet)

Mad Jack is absolutely wrong by the way. I'm not sure where he is getting his info. Cars can run on hydrogen. I don't know if you can convert current vehicles (like the SCAMS claim that he is talking about) but I have heard of some people having success with that. I have not personally seen it though. In fact Ford has a concept for a car that has an internal combustion engine (aka an ICE) that runs off hydrogen.

http://www.new-cars.com/concept/2003/for...

However, what true hydrogen supporters are talking about is the use of fuel cells in cars, not combustion engines. Its a totally different concept and it is completely possible and hopefully it will happen soon. Currently ALL the major auto manufacturers have working concepts for hydrogen cars that run on a fuel cell stack. Currently they are running pilot vehicles in several US cities to see how they work in practice. Last I checked they retail for around $100,000

Ultimately, the goal of hydrogen fuel is to create a "hydrogen economy." This would completely change our world and change how we view energy. Basically what the hydrogen economy entails is a complete shift from non-renewable to renewable resources through the use of hydrogen as energy storage. The biggest downfall to solar and wind power is the fact that, when the wind isn't blowing and the sun isn't shinning, your in the dark. Hydrogen completely solves this problem. Excess energy can be stored and used later, so when the wind is blowing, the excess can be saved for when the wind is not blowing. Furthermore, and this is the biggest advantage in my mind from an economic standpoint, hyrogen can be produced anywhere! I could have a solar panel on my roof and a hydrogen storage tank in my garage. I could run my house on the same fuel I run my car on AND it can all be produced at home! Its safe and simple to do. When I get home I can fill my tank up right there and never have to go to the gas station. This doesn't just solve the infrastructure problem...it eliminates the infrastructure completely and gets rid of the "grid." The environmental benefits are the biggest advantage, obviously, but the economic benefits are huge as well.

I did a very extensive research paper on hydrogen power in high school and did another one a few years later in college. I am a very adamant supporter of hydrogen and have been following its development as a replacement for oil closely. Sorry, I know that got really long, but this is a subject I'm pretty passionate about and fairly knowledgable on as well.

Answer 2

The run your car on water technology is a scam.

SCAM  Save your money

As the saying goes - If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is.

Every time the price of gas spikes, you see more and more of these devices advertised.

There were lots of them in the middle 70s during the oil embargo and gas prices spiked.  They didn't work then, they don't work now.

The current batch of devices claim to work by using electrolysis to separate hydrogen gas from water then feed it into your intake manifold.  The rip-off is that an automotive electrical system does not produce enough electricity for the system to manufacture enough hydrogen to make any difference.

Stop and think about it.  If there were a device that really worked, the automobile manufacturers would be all over it.  If General Motors, for example, could put a device in their vehicles that would give them a fuel efficiency advantage over their competition, they would buy up the patents and have them in every vehicle they make.

They would not be sold on some obscure website by some person selling them out of their garage.

The article on the link below has the best source of information on why this can not work.