I see some build-it-yourself hydrogen fuel cells on eBay. Is it possible to do this or should I buy one?

Question

I'm seeing auctions on eBay for building your own hydrogen fuel cell. Is it possible to do this, or is it cheaper to buy one if you're interested in that for generating electricity?

Answer 1

Solar Power is becoming a very viable option,producing more power than ever before.Let  the Scientists play with the hydrogen cells.

Answer 2

Sounds like a scam to me.

Answer 3

LOL!

go ahead and try it...the ATF will be kicking in your door thinking you are building a bomb after you buy all the stuff!

Answer 4

Scam

I believe this is also what space shuttles use?

Answer 5

A fuel cell large enough to run even a small economy car will cost over $100,000.

Fuel cells are easily poisoned by small amounts of contaminants.

I would be concerned, especially if the parts were unusually cheap whether they are parts that were poisoned by contaminants and essentially useless.

Answer 6

Don't fall for the whole hydrogen scam. any hope of using fuel cells is a long way off.

Right now the cost of making hydrogen out of anything, including water, is far too expensive. Most industrial hydrogen is made from natural gas but the residual gas is co2, one of the green house gases we are trying to avoid by using hydrogen.

BTW: Have we forgotten the Hindenburg?

Answer 7

Aside from the probability of the scam, hydrogen is very explosive and dangerous to work with if you do not know exactly what you are doing.  Little pinhole leaks can lead to massive blasts.

I would definitely not try to power a vehicle myself off hydrogen, and I have a fair amount of experience with compressed gases and even explosive mixtures.

Besides, how you going to get the hydrogen?  Electrolysis?  Quite inefficient without careful choice of catalyst and conditions.

Many other factors...be sure you read up on all, and then perhaps also ask some of the experts on here when your homework is done.

Answer 8

scam

don't buy it.

Answer 9

Not only is a crazy idea to consider building your own H fuel cell as it will doubtless be better to buy a ready made and tested brand, but how will you get or generate the H for fuel ?  Sounds like we could all have fun watching you try, I for one will be standing back far enough not to get my hair burnt off in the flash.

Answer 10

There not hard to build at all .Those things have been around for the longest of time but you really don't get all the much H&O out of them . You can build a system that seperates the H from the O making it safer then H&O mixed but the way they are built your useing the gases as they are made and not storing them so your pretty well safe from exsposion . I used a 12 volt inverter that steps up the voltage to 110 and got twice the amount of H&O and it does save a little on fuel but hardley worth the effort .

Go to ( www.first-moecule .com  ) Ive been talking to this guy for the last year or so and get allot of info out of him and seriosly thinking its a good thing .You can get his email address on his site . Email him talk to him what can it hurt . The applications of such a device are to enormouse to say from auto ,home to industrial use not only that but creating a vast amout of jobs it would change the way man thinks. Anyway do some reserch on it and come up with your own conclusion on altenative energy

Answer 11

Are any of you engineers or scientists? These kits and plans provide you with a small PEM, a plastic toy car and a battery.  Anything other than the toy fuel cell kit is a scam.  I don't know of any single person that has the capability of synthesizing the polymer in a PEM core, let alone being able to machine the conveyance features for a platinum reformer catalyst.  

And all those fearful hindenburg comments are why we are not selling H2 automobiles to consumer yet. Talk to someone in the industry and ask them who's using the tech already. We've already solved most of the critical problems!