How can hydrogen potentially be used as an alternative fuel source for cars?

Question

How can hydrogen potentially be used as an alternative fuel source for cars?

Answer 1

It takes a lot of energy to produced H2 and to transport it. You would need every 5th vehicle to be a tanker.

Answer 2

The way hydrogen is turned into energy is no longer by burning it, but by converting it into water. In a hydrogen fuel cell, pure hydrogen is mixed with air and when it meets the oxygen in the air it bonds with it and gives up electrons. the electrons it gives up are used as energy.

The reason it is so clean and available is because the only thing that comes out of the exahust pipe is water vapor. Also hydrogen is an infinate source of fuel that you dont have to drill for, unlike gasoline.

PS. there are already hydrogen buses in California and Hydrogen buildings in Japan

Answer 3

There are TONS of problems with hydrogen as a fuel in cars.

1. It would have to be kept extremely cold or under extreme pressure. How do you keep your fuel tank super-cold on a hot day in Arizona without expending tons of energy. For pressure, I don't think I trust the average grease monkey or high school fuel attendant to handle explosive gases under extreme pressure--bad news.

2. Exposure to hydrogen gas makes metal brittle over time. So now we have explosive gases under extreme pressure in brittle containers moving at 70 miles per hour on the highway. Yikes.

3. The infrastructure to distribute hydrogen gas all around the country doesn't exist, would be extremely expensive, possibly dangerous, etc.

4. You've got to expend energy to make hydrogen. Does this mean burning fossil fuels to make hydrogen? That doesn't sound much better than just burning fossil fuels in cars. (Although it might have positive health effects in cities where people live in the middle of high exhaust emissions).

5. We don't know how to make hydrogen efficiently yet. Right now, it takes something like seven times the energy to make hydrogen than to burn it. This means you'd have to burn seven times the fossil fuels to make hydrogen and burn it in a car than you would use to burn the fossil fuel in the car. People criticize ethanol for the same thing, although ethanol does produce more energy than it takes to make it.

6. When a hydrogen leak catches fire, it tends to burn with an invisible flame. This is scary to me.

7. Those pilot project hydrogen cars cost millions of dollars. For a million dollars, I'd rather take the bus.

Technology may solve some of these problems, but there is a LONG way to go. I think it's dangerous to sit around and wait for technology to save us from ourselves. I put more hope in ethanol. Sure, it's making corn expensive, but if we open up our imports (right now there's a HUGE import tarriff on it) it would help. Also, technology is a lot closer to giving us cellulosic ethanol than efficient hydrogen fuel.

Answer 4

To convert water to hydrogen it will take a large generator . Hydrogen itself in a very large tank becomes very dangerous . If u have a wreck it would blow the hole block away.

Answer 5

I have no idea where Gene got his info from . Hydrogen was used back in the 1800s to lift the huge German air ships. Just Google " Hindenburg" to find that out.

Answer 6

There are no technical problems that can't be resolved (but, some will be challenging).  Internal combusion engines (regular car engines) can use hydrogen with little modification.  The biggest technical issues are with transportation and storage ... we have a infrastructure designed for gasoline, and this needs to change.  But, there is a significant cost issue.  It's much more costly to use hydrogen than gasoline.

Answer 7

Not for a long time. The molecules are so small that hydrogen goes through steel like helium does through balloon. Fill a tank today, don't touch it and it's leaked empty in a week.

Answer 8

Hydrogencan be a powerful fuel source.  It has been used in rockets for a long time.  One great benefit is that the only waste product is water.  But hydrogen at normal air pressure doesn't contain enough energy to be useful.  It must be condensed into a liquid or even solid state, which means high pressure and cold temperatures.  We'll need to develop a safe means of distributing and storing hydrogen under pressure before hydrogen cars will be practical.