Hydrogen-powered vehicles?

Question

It sounds too good to be true- no pollution. Supposedly all they would put out would be water vapor. But what about safety? Would a hydrogen-powered vehicle explode if involved in a severe accident? How dangerous would this be? I think Honda is developing one, but their website doesn't mention how they would prevent the explosion problem. Or am I misunderstanding the whole idea?

Also, although water vapor is seemingly harmless, picture this: If all of the millions of cars out there now were replaced with hydrogen cars that expel only water vapor, would all of that extra water vapor in the atmosphere cause other environmental problems? Global warming? Weather changes?

Answer 1

your right about hydrogen being very explosive. i think electric cars would be better, like those cute little smart cars. i dont think that water is going to cause problems. maybe your just thinking to hard on the subject...maybe you should dye your hair blonde so you dont have to think about these things...

Answer 2

As to water vapor, we're already producing it with gasoline.  Ever see water drip out of an exhaust pipe on a cold morning?  It's the hydrogen from the gasoline combined with the oxygen from the air.  

The 'hydrogen economy' does indeed seem like a big waste of effort and energy.  A tank of hydrogen doesn't contain a lot of energy, and we do not, in fact, have either large plants for producing hydrogen through electrolysis nor do we have any plans to do so.  Conventional pipelines can't be used, either.  

Trackless electric vehicles and electrically-driven trains are vastly more practical.  The trolley wires provide all the power necessary from nuclear or hydro plants.

Answer 3

I totally agree with you.

I think the safety would be my #1 concern.  Especially during filling.  I believe transportation can be made safe by using special tanks and extra protection.  However, I am really worried about severe accidents and filling process.  A single spark can set off a major explosion.  H gas can explode from 20% concentration to 80% concentration.  One of the widest range of all gas.

I think the water vapor problem is smaller.  I believe we can modify the exhaust system in such a way that most of it would condense into water liquid before it exists.

Maybe those extra vapors might help dry regions like AZ and southern CA.  =)

Answer 4

Global Warming is lie propagated by Gore.

Your present car is about 17% less efficent because the envirementalist had the timeing retarded to reduce the piston chamber temperature as the high temperature produce NO2.

Hydrogen will burn very hot ,and if U are useing air for combustion it will produce a lot of NO2.

Answer 5

The real problem is making the hydrogen. This takes a ton of electricity that must be generated somewhere and right now the cheapest way to generate electricity is to use fossil fuels. Unless you wouldn't mind paying a dollar for every mile that you drive, hydrogen is not the answer to our problems.

Answer 6

i am using hydrogen fuel in my car now, its safe simple and cheep. i still use gas but i have increased my fuel mileage and built the unit myself, built a home made unit for under $50.00

Answer 7

Yes, it is too good to be true, but not for the reasons given.

By coincidence, I was just reading the transcript of an interview with Dr. Ulf Bossel, of the European Fuel Cell Forum (EFCF); the link is below.  He is VERY negative on hydrogen, because it is so wasteful to convert energy to hydrogen and back.  It would also be very expensive to build an entire new fuel production and delivery system for H2 gas.  We are far better off using electricity, which we can produce directly from many sources and can use far more efficiently; it will cost us much less in the end.  For instance, it takes about 4 times as much energy to go from electricity to hydrogen to compressed H2 gas in a tank to a fuel cell back to electricity as it does to just charge a lithium-ion battery.  You're going to pay for all that wasted electricity, and the generators to make it!

Hydrogen doesn't necessarily have zero pollution, either.  If you burn it in a combustion engine, it will make oxides of nitrogen.

As regards the claims you raised:

- Safety isn't a big issue; gasoline is generally more dangerous than hydrogen, because it forms pools of explosive vapor which linger on the ground.

- Water vapor has a very short lifetime in the atmosphere; if you dumped an excess somewhere, it would rain out in just a few days.