Hydrogen generated from water can this be really good at reducing petrol consumption?

Question

Hydrogen generated from water can this be really good at reducing petrol consumption?

Answer 1

Nope.  The energy accounting doesn't work.  At best, hydrogen is a fairly precarious method of powering vehicles.  You have to handle a great deal of it at very high pressures because it has a very low energy density.  And you need very special plumbing because it leaks out of pipes and causes steel parts to break by embrittlement.  

I think that by the end of the summer we'll begin to see the first prosecutions for bogus energy schemes.  There are hydrogen fuel-cell companies selling stock, and electric car companies collecting money for cars that don't exist, and of course there's water4fuel and other water-cell purveyors.

Answer 2

Electrons will be the new fuel, not hydrogen.  Hydrogen is very difficult to store, inefficient to turn into useful energy, and inefficient to make.  Hydrogen is a proton and an electron.  Why drag along a useless proton when you can carry just the useful electrons - in a tank called a "battery"?  Already 80-90% efficient and we haven't even gotten serious about the technology.

"Hours to charge"?  Not so

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000GF2L7E/ref=...

To say nothing of these

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001582T0K/ref=...

which charge almost instantly.  The building blocks are there.

Answer 3

It currently takes more energy to split the water molecule into its component parts of Hydrogen and Oxygen than is yielded by burning the Hydrogen after its split.  

So it currently doesn't make "energy" sense.

Answer 4

Not really.  There are many problems with hydrogen cars (see link below).  The problem with using hydrogen generated from water is that you need a lot of electricity to break the atomic bonds in the first place, so it's not an efficient process.  Much more efficient to use that electricity to power an electric car.  That's the technology that will reduce our petrol consumption.

Answer 5

Having worked on alternative fuels since the late 60s I can say you can power a vehicle on just about anything But is it efficient or worth it i had a minivan runnining on methane gas which was donated by the sewage works it ran & traveled for 75mls on 1 bottle that worked out to 23-26 mpg(rubbish)I heard of a man in Arkansas who claimed to have invented a hydrogen fuel cell antone can produce hydrogen with 2 electrodes a bowl of water a battery & cling film but wont power your car he said what is agood sorce of H? water but it does'nt work! he said H2O think about it! I did & i got it, he sold his invention to NASA & I thought it was burried until I got to look at aHonda Hybrid & the system is alive & powering cars!Mr brown can stick his wind turbines where the solar energy does'nt come from!

Answer 6

Hydrogen from solar energy is the future fuel of choice for the human race.  Hydrogen produces no no green house gases unlike ethanol,coal, coal oil, and oil.

Answer 7

Yes.  But there are still a lot of kinks in the system.  The biggest of which is that I hear it takes more energy to make hydrogen in a usable format for automobiles than it would if you ran on gasoline in the first place.  (Not unlike corn ethanol.  Go figure).

Answer 8

Yes it can.  The problem is that you needs lots of electricity to do this.  So, if it's going to have any impact the electricity needs to come from 'clean' sources such as Nuclear, Wind, Tidal etc.

[Edit] - there are a few points in some other answers that I'd like to comment on.

Although creating hydrogen from water isn't particularly energy efficient, neither are petrol and diesel engines (less than 25% of the chemical energy actually gets translated into power at the wheels).

Fossil fuels ARE going to run out.  I don't know when - but they will.  There is a finite amount and we need an alternative.

Electric cars powered by batteries are as much use as a chocolate teapot to me.  I often drive 300 miles (and more on occasion) and no battery operated electric vehicle is currently capable of supporting this kind of distance without a re-charge which takes hours.  But, if you use the hydrogen in a fuel cell you could quickly 'top-up' once hydrogen 'petrol stations' are in place.  Using Hydrogen in an internal combustion engine could act as a stop gap as most current cars could be converted until the fuel cells become more common place - but no-one really thinks that this is a long term solution.

The current trend towards bio-fuel can't continue.  By using land previously allocated to food production this industry is forcing an increase in the price of food (we pay a lot more for a litre of diesel that vegetable oil).

Answer 9

Its like many "green" ideas.  Great in theory, but the practical bits tend to get in the way.  First you need a good energy source to split the water to obtain the hydrogen.  Then you need more energy to compress that hydrogen into some type of storage container - like a steel tank.  But steel tanks are heavy. So you need even more energy to haul the steel hydrogen tank around.  Best try an electric car with a long extension lead [cord for US readers]

Answer 10

Yes

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The way to split the two atoms was very expensive but a researcher in England and one in Flordia got together and found out how to do it with only the cars battery as the starter of it and then the alternator takes over the electrical needs

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And it is used in Europe already

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The United States is just now getting in on the band wagon so to say

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And when it does the cost of living will be effected by it in a GOOD way

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Answer 11

Yes - if everyone's car ran on Hydrogen then obviously NO ONE would be using petrol!

Will it cause more pollution by the amount of electricity required to run the Hydrogen production facilities, is it feasable and is it a good idea are totally different questions.

Answer 12

Ok think this through.

Who uses  A LOT of fuel? Well, lets say UPS, DHL, FedEx and all their trucks. If there was a device that saved them 10% of their fuel bills, that would be what? Tens of millions of dollars/pounds/euros a year, right?

How many of these trucks have such a thing on them?

How credible  is such a device?

What is "zero?"