Hydrogen as alt energy?

Question

whats wrong with combustable hydrogen gas as alternate source of fuel? i heard in some countries they use lpg gas as fuel for cars, so why cant we use hydrogen gas?

Answer 1

Honda already has one on the market, for lease only in the LA area, and there are others soon to follow.

the biggest draw back are fueling stations.

http://www.hydrogencarsnow.com/honda-fcx...

Answer 2

First of all Hydrogen is not really an energy source. This is because to get you need to put the electricity into  water to separate the hydrogen and oxygen atoms. So because of this hydrogen really is acting like a battery. Secondly the idea of hydrogen powering our cars frightens people when they think of the Hindenburg so the research in the hydrogen infrastructure is somewhat behind. With todays innovations and $4.50 gas i believe hydrogen will be seen more in the future.

Answer 3

The problem with hydrogen powered cars is that you need to separate the hydrogen from the oxygen in water, which requires a massive amount of electricity in large amounts and we're still not really that green when it comes to producing electricity.

Answer 4

Some countries use some LPG gas, it's true - actually, a good majority of forklifts in the U.S. are propane powered.

Hydrogen is it's own can of worms though.  It's highly explosive, difficult to produce and store, and one big thing about hydrogen that people don't notice is that water vapor is up to 16,000 times as potent of greenhouse gas as carbon dioxide.

It also would require a fairly substantial engine modification to run in internal combustion engines - basically throwing 100 years of technology in the junkyard.  The good news is that cheap hydrogen may lead to synthetic fuels, or possibly used in furnaces for heat.  I see these as better uses for hydrogen than in cars.

Answer 5

First of all, how do we get the Hydrogen? Our current methods are either inefficient, detrimental to the environment or both. Next, how do we refuel? Hydrogen is a lighter than air gas. In order to keep it a liquid, it must be kept either very cold or under high pressure. Then it must be pumped via air-tight nozzle under pressure into the tank. Then we have flammability. Hydrogen burns much easier than other liquid fuels. We've all heard the myth about the cellphone combusting gas at the gas station, well, that could happen with Hydrogen.

Answer 6

Ok, time to climb back onto the soap box. Hydrogen is viable, we are learning that every day now, there is 2 new ways of making it that are very energy efficient because we don't have to put alot of energy into making it. People are already using solar and wind power to make hydrogen, maybe not massive quantity but unless you are trying to power a fleet of vehicles you can get enough to power a vehicle with some of these generators. If you need proof I think it is iceland that has started using hydrogen everywhere, they are way ahead of us in that regard using geothermal power to make the stuff. As far as safety and storage they go hand in hand, you can store a sufficient amount of hydrogen in metal hydride canisters you have to heat the canisters to release the hydrogen again but you could shoot one of the canisters when it is not heated and nothing would happen. Compressing is silly you don't get enough volume to power a vehicle for long with a rather large tank and cooled and stored in a liquid isn't that good an idea either since it warms up and turns to vapor fast. Car engines built right now with minor modifications to their on board computers would run fine on hydrogen, you inject the air directly into the intact manifold, again already been done. Just don't use high strength metals in making the engine but aluminum is very good with hydrogen.

Hmm, not sure where someone is getting their price for a canister, but I found a 900 SL hydride tank for 800 bucks, secondly you have to think on the battery's, lets use lit-ion for an example, you lose 15% efficiency per year, and then within 3-4 years typically you have to replace the batterys which is far worse for the environment then sticking with standard oil based combustion engines couple that with the range a battery gives you, the Chevy volt gets about 80miles per charge where as one company is getting about 350miles on their hydrogen conversion kit for a car on a chevy corvette.

. There are two exciting new research areas for creating hydrogen aswell, far easier and more mass marketable ways.

Answer 7

Until someone comes up with a cheap, clean, efficient way to produce hydrogen it nothing more than a pipe dream.

Aurawolf is wrong it’s not viable, using solar or wind power to  produce hydrogen is only about 66% efficient then use the hydrogen to power a car you only get back between 30 to 40% of that so in total you get back 20 to 26% of the energy that you put in. If you just charge a battery pack you get back almost 90%. Also metal hydride storage system doesn’t hold a lot of gas a 660 liter tank costs about $2,500.

Now if you have basically unlimited power, IE Iceland geothermal power, yes you could do it. They still would be better off using that power to charge battery pack, but if you have a ton of excess power you can wasteful.

Even if a small fraction of the car in the US were converted to hydrogen the price of hydrogen would go through the roof.

Answer 8

let me start off by saying Hydrogen is a great option for the concept of free energy.     I built my first hydrogen cell about 5 years ago. Have converted over 50 vehicles in the last 10 years (gydrogen and EV) and now currently run 2 trucks (and another EV), my home hot water heater, home stove and home generator on hydrogen for free with caught rain water and the help of a $10 solar panel.  I offer a step by step DIY guide to walk anyone interested threw the process. You can find it at www agua-luna com or you can email me.

There are basically 3 safe ways to make and use it... chemically, electrically and molecularly, the first 2 being easier so I'll only discuss them here. The fallowing steps were taking directly out of a DIY guide I offer to those who would like to run their vehicles or home on hydrogen safely. The entire guide is available at www agua-luna com

    On demand h2 generators are a bit different from the Hollywood versions like seen Chain Reaction with Keanu Reeves, that tend to explode violently every time a film is being made. However when used in an on-demand system there is no storage of hydrogen and oxygen in its gas form, only liquid (water) and is only transformed into gas “on-demand” in small cylinder size amounts. It’s actually safer then gasoline as it doesn’t evaporate, creating explosive fumes in the tank like gas. the following were actually taken out of my $5 guide available at www agua-luna com

    Chemically

    1. You’ll need a 6inch x 1ft schedule 40 pvc pipe. With pvc cement glue a cap on the bottom and use a s***w on cap for the top. Drill a small hole (1/4inch or so) in the side close to the top, s******g in a small copper shut off valve. Place a few feet of stranded (food grade is good) flex hose to the valve and into the air intake of your engine (carburetor or fuel injections).

    2. Now crunch up a couple aluminum cans (beer cans, soda cans etc) and drop them into the pvc pipe, along with a couple cups of lye (Red Devil drain opener has lye in it, some Clorox and Drano’s do to).

    3. Then simply add water, s***w on the top and wait a few minutes.

    What happens in simplicity is that aluminum and lye don’t really get along so they battle, and as always the innocent civilians (water H2O) that the most casualties, by giving up its hydrogen and oxygen. This then builds up in the void of the pipe and is ready to be vented into your engine, by opening the valve. You may need to start your engine on gas then switch it off after the hydrogen starts burning.

    Electrical is a bit easier then Chemically.

    1. Simply take a small solar panel 1.5 amps is what I use ($9 at harborfreight.com), connect the 2 wires from the panel +- to 2 conductors (carbon cores of batteries work well, just be careful removing it from the jacket), but any conductive material will work ie. Copper, aluminum, steel, etc.

    2. Drop the wires into a water tank (I use 55gal drums), make sure they don’t touch each other.

    3. Drill a small hole (1/4inch or so) in the side close to the top, s******g in a small copper shut off valve. Place a few feet of stranded (food grade is good) flex hose to the valve and into the air intake of your engine (carburetor or fuel injections).

    4. Then simply add water, s***w on the top cap and wait.

    After a few hours tiny bubbles will form and rise off one conductor (that’s hydrogen) and even smaller bubbles that just looks like foam will rise off the other (oxygen). I don’t remember which likes the positive and which likes the neg hydrogen or the oxygen.

    The third method is more complicated and is what I use for my vehicles. It’s just a modified Joe’s Cell, there’s a step by step DIY guide available to walk you threw the process here www agua-luna com

It also covers the other 2 methods described in more detail.

www agua-luna com

Hope this helped, feel free to contact me personally if you have any questions if you’d like assistance in making your first self sufficient steps, I’m willing to walk you step by step threw the process. I’ve written several how-to DIY guides available at  www agua-luna com on the subject. I also offer online and on-site workshops, seminars and internships to help others help the environment.

Dan Martin

Alterative Energy / Sustainable Consultant, Living 100% on Alternative & Author of How One Simple Yet Incredibly Powerful Resource Is Transforming The Lives of Regular People From All Over The World... Instantly Elevating Their Income & Lowering Their Debt, While Saving The Environment by Using FREE ENERGY... All With Just One Click of A Mouse...For more info Visit:  

www AGUA-LUNA com

Stop Global Warming!!!

Answer 9

There are a number of bid roadblocks in the way of hydrogen vehicles.

1) Where to get the hydrogen.  Currently 96% of our hydrogen comes from fossil fuels.  That doesn't solve any problems.

2) Lack of transportation and storage infrastructure.  Very few hydrogen refueling stations.

3) Hydrogen fuel cells currently require platinum, which is very expensive.  Honda is leading the FCX Clarity fuel cell car for $600/month.  And that's just a lease!

4) Electric cars are simply superior in almost every aspect.

See the link below for further details.