Hydrogen emitting cars- Problem Solved. Why aren't we using them?

Question

BMW now has Hydrogen emitting cars. Shouldn't that solve that portion of the problem? Why don't other car companies make them? That way they'd be cheaper. I do not get it! We have the solution right in front of us, but no one can do anything because it's only made by one company and there's only one make, making it expensive.

Why aren't we using these?

Answer 1

This is going to be great!  If they have a Hydrogen-emitting car, we can hook them up to cars that are Hydrogen-consuming cars, and everyone can drive around for free!

Answer 2

Among other reasons, there is no infrastructure to support these cars. Even they need to refuel. Where you going to do that? It'd take decades and cost billions to set that up on a widespread basis.

And are you sure they emit hydrogen? Hydrogen explodes. Remember the Hindenberg.

And what do these cars cost? You have to run the alternative fuel cars something like 300,000 miles to break even on the initial cost.

Answer 3

If it was a good way out it could destroy the Lefts position on drilling and they would not like that.

Answer 4

It is all about bureaucracy and the government is involved. This is why we have to take things in our own hands and find ways that we can individually implement to make our lives better. We all know that the gas prices are not going down anytime too soon and since this is a money making thing for everyone involved, let us find our own way to do things. I am doing my research on ways to save on gas and have already purchased the water conversion kit and will install it this weekend. I have seen the video explanation of it and was quite impressed and desperate that I had to buy it at http://waterfuelconversion.googlepages.c...

Answer 5

Hydrogen fuel cells are electrochemical devices which convert fuel directly to electricity without combustion so no intermediate (e.g. no mechanical energy)

The process is opposite to electrolysis.

Hydrogen Fuel cells work by, Exposing to a catalyst. H atoms split giving off a stream of electron and H+. The H+ ions travels through the FC medium that only permeable to H+ Electrons pass through an external circuit to anode, where they combine with O2 & H+ to form water. The flowing electrons generate a current that can be used immediatly or stored for later use.

Hydrogen power has great potential. But like all energy sources it too has limitations.

Advantages

– Super clean & high efficiency

– H2 can be obtained from renewable energy or sources other than oil

– Can be used as baseload power & for transportation

– Modular, easy to operate & retrofit can be used for cars unlike many other green energy sources.

Barriers

– Problematic: to heavy and occupy to much space.

– Cost is still high, outside of commercial range Size, weight, capacity of PEM fuel cells are problematic for light vehicles

– Not yet provide rapid start up

– Problem in cold weather

– Fuel reformer and auxiliary infrastructure. Like most new energy sources infrastructure changes will have to be made. Pipe networks to transport and use H2 fuel.

– Safety issue with H2.

Hydrogen fuel cells are a great alternative, but there are still some limitations and obstacles. More research and refining the technology will reduce the size and weight of storage, increase safety and eventually decrease costs. More research is still required but they are a great alternative to fossil fuels.

Answer 6

I think they should be more available and less costly.  Also, there hasn't been enough stations that are set up for them.

I would like to see a fuel cell car that was made and cheap enough for everyday folks to buy.

Answer 7

Go one step simpler - use natural gas. That's what my 2 cars use, and it's clean for the environment, super cheap, and the technology is already here and has been for years! My 2 Fords were factory made in 1999 and 2000. Wish there were more. The problem mostly seems to be in refueling stations, because there aren't a lot of them out there yet. Start bugging your local legislators to provide incentives so that more stations will be put in, so we can all get off the gasoline dependency! Oil will run out before long, anyway...

Answer 8

Hydrogen feed to an internal combustion engine is not the road to the future.

Hydrogen to provide electrical power directly has problems but is efficient. Within an internal combustion engine it is just too inefficient for words.

There is a way to provide hydrogen from natural gas, but we can get better efficiency using natural gas in the internal combustion engine instead of converting the  natural gas to hydrogen and burning just the hydrogen.

Using coal to create electricity to make hydrogen to burn in an internal combustion engine? No, better to gasify the coal and burn it directly as natural gas.

We do not have enough nuclear, wind, solar power to make that hydrogen either.

So our reason for not deploying is lack of infrastructure and high cost.

Answer 9

The oil companies aren't building any hydrogen fueling stations and until that happens the auto manufacturers will not make cars which can't be sold since they can't be fueled.

Answer 10

Because the big automakers and the oil companies have been in bed together for years. Why do you thing all these electric cars coming on the market in the near future are being made by small start-up companies and not by Ford or GM.

Answer 11

Cheryline l has the best answer. An Australian a current affairs program had a segment with a father and son converted a late 1980's ford in their own shed.Like it was only a project done for fun but did save money on petrol.