How does the energy creaton process work in hydrogen cars?

Question

I read in an old Wired Magazine that California is gearing up to create an infrastructure to allow cars that run on hydrogen to run on the road and have "filling stations" along the highway that runs north to south. How does the process of making energy from water for these cars work?

Answer 1

It depends if it is a combustion engine or a fuel cell.

H2 used in a combustion engine works exactly like gas only it produces nothing but water vapour.  The only way I can describe a fuel cell is "the electron takes the short way and the Hydrogen atom takes the long way".

Answer 2

A "hydrogen economy" is required to eliminate our growing dependence on foreign oil.

Hydrogen fuelled cars use something called a fuel cell. Fuel cells generate electricity from hydrogen. The electricity generated from the fuel cell is used to power the car.  Fuel cells emit pure drinkable water instead of "greenhouse gases" like engines do.

Hydrogen is created using a process called  electrolysis. Electrolysis is basically splitting up the water(H2O) into both hydrogen and oxygen by the use of electricity. There are other ways to generate hydrogen, but the extraction from water is the cheapest and most effective way.  The use of electricity or heat from nuclear reactors are the most  inexpensive and effective ways to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. And during off peak hours, idle nuclear reactors can be generating hydrogen for use in fuel cells inside of cars.

New technology allows hydrogen to be stored safely without the risk of explosion.   In many ways, hydrogen is already far less dangerous to store than gasoline.  

Another answerer mentioned solar power and wind power. Both are a waste of time. It is impracticle to use either one to  power all of the cars in the U.S.. It would take uncountless thousands of wind mills to generate enough electricity to power all of the cars in the U.S.. And solar cells are a waste of time and energy for the generation of hydrogen.  Hundreds of square miles of land would have to be covered with solar cells just to generate enough electricity to power the cars for one large state. Also, solar cells would need to be changed after X number of years since solar cells become less and less efficient each year they are used. Another thing, most people fail to know that it requires a lot of energy to just to make solar cells.

Answer 3

It will probably cost u more than gasoline and hydrogen is very explosive.

Answer 4

It takes approximately 50 Kilowatt hours of electricity to produce one kilogram (approximately 2.2 pounds) of hydrogen from water. One kilogram of hydrogen has the energy content of one gallon of gasoline.

Commercially available equipment operates at 70% efficiency. If we could get 100% efficiency, the 50 Kilowatt number would drop to approximately 35 Kilowatt hours of electricity.

In order to avoid the production of CO2, the electricity should be generated by a renewable source, such as windpower. The electricity should not be produced by a coal fired or natural gas fired power plant.

Also today most hydrogen is produced from natural gas. CO2 is released in that process, again defeating the purpose.

Hydrogen produce electrolytically can be produced on site from electricity in the grid and tap water, or recycled water for the perfectionists who do not want to put additional pressure on our potable water supplies.

You do not have to transport and deliver hydrogen in a truck if you produce hydrogen electrolytically on site.

Also, you do not need to build new fueling stations. You make arrangements with existing gasoline statioon operators to add the production equipment and dispensig equipment to the gasoline dispensing equipment they already have.

That way you can refuel hydrogen cars at the local gas stations.

Also, you can buy the electrolytic production equipment for your home and produce the hydrogen to refuel the car in your home.

Answer 5

Energy cannot be created or destroyed, only tranformed.  Hydrogen can be produced from water by two means, the most obvious is via electrolysis.  If you pass an electric current through water it will break down into its component elements - hydrogen and oxygen.  You can do this on a very small scale in a jar with a battery.  While this seems like a great deal, it is actually not very efficient as considerable electricity must be used to produce reasonable quantities of hydrogen.

The other process, and the one used to produce hydrogen commercially, is to react the water (in the form of steam) with a hydrocarbon, usually methane.  This process, known as steam reforming, produces hydrogen and carbon dioxide.  The reaction is endothermic and takes place at elevated temperatures so additional fuel (natural gas again) must be burned to provide the necessary energy.  The hydrogen produced comes from both the water and the hydrocarbon.