If the world replaces petrol / diesel driven engines with hydrogen fuel cells..........?

Question

and due to the fact the by-product from hydrogen fuel cells is water, over time will the earth become 'flooded' with the extra water created by the billions of fuel cells and the oceans rise even more?

Answer 1

The short answer is no, because the hydrogen would have been created by breaking up water in the first place.

You see the evidence all around you.  Burning and metabolism of plant matter creates water, but that plant matter was made by cracking water into hydrogen and oxygen.  The same hydrogen, oxygen and carbon go around and around.

Answer 2

Uh, no- the water would be evaporated.

Answer 3

They wont replace petrol cars with hydrogen fuel because of the cost. The cheapest alternatives are electric power once the batteries can achieve enough power to size weight ratio or compressed air power as produced by a car manufacturer in France. It already has a car and engine which will do 60 miles for 3 pence. ( the cost of the electricity used to compress the air). I did a question on this some time ago and got a great response. I forget the website to look at but from memory you may be able to track it down to have a look at. Search for Le Car, air powered car, Nice, France.

Answer 4

no

the water is here already its not new or extra.

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, Receive a FREE Solar Panels Now!!!

Answer 5

While the Earth won't become flooded, extra water vapor in the atmosphere isn't considered to be a good thing.  Evaporated H2O is a known greenhouse gas—a gas that absorbs and re-emits infrared radiation in Earth's atmosphere, thereby increasing temperatures.

Beyond water vapor issues, there are problems with hydrogen that hydrogen advocates seem adverse to talk about.

One of the problems with hydrogen is that hydrogen is in scarce supply and producing it requires vast amounts of energy.  Climate-friendly production of liquid hydrogen on a large scale presupposes a virtually unlimited supply of ecologically produced electricity -- something not likely to materialize in the near future.

Energy is lost in the process of separating hydrogen from the molecules that bind it.  This means that the energy stored in hydrogen (H2) will always be much less than the original energy spent to split the hydrogen out of water, methane, gasoline or your molecule of choice.  Using methane (natural gas – most cost/energy efficient) the energy value of the hydrogen gas is only about 60-70% of the energy (typically electricity) spent to produce the steam in the steam reformation process.  Another 30-40% is lost in the process of separating the hydrogen atoms from the carbon molecules in natural gas, and during the process of compressing and liquefying (most space-efficient storage state) the hydrogen so that it can be carried in a vehicle.  Once the hydrogen is finally available for use, the fuel cell has only a 50% electrical efficiency, which means the fuel cell will only convert about 50% of the hydrogen into electricity to power the electric motor that turns the wheels of a fuel cell car. The other 50% is lost in heat.

Forcing the transition to a hydrogen-based economy within the next three to four decades is not an economically sound idea.  Approximately 95% of the hydrogen produced in the U.S. is made via natural gas reforming in large central plants.  The U.S. currently imports about 15% of the natural gas it uses.  Producing large amounts of hydrogen from natural gas in the long term would only trade U.S. dependence on imported oil for U.S. dependence on imported natural gas.

There is a persistent myth that Joe Citizen can just produce his own hydrogen with water and a battery.  Creating hydrogen from water (using electricity) is much less efficient than creating hydrogen from natural gas, and is not considered viable due to excessive cost.  The pint or two of low pressure hydrogen gas that Mr. (or Mrs.) citizen could produce at home during a day using the 'free' methods advocated by others here would move a hydrogen fuel cell car no more than a few blocks.

Beyond the seemingly simple task of splitting hydrogen out of water with electricity, there are the factors of compressing the hydrogen once it is produced, cooling the hydrogen to a liquid state and then powering the cryogenic storage tank and vehicle delivery pumps.  If stainless steel tanks and delivery piping are used (almost mandatory due to the extremely high pressures used) there will be issues with hydrogen embrittlement of the metal, and maintenance will become an expensive issue in the ‘homebrew’ hydrogen system.

Of note (and not ever reported by the Fool Cell press) is that producing hydrogen from natural gas -does- result in greenhouse gas emissions.  In central station hydrogen production from natural gas reforming, the mass of CO2 emitted is 2.51 times greater than the mass of hydrogen produced, or about 0.36 pounds (1/3 lb) of CO2 per fuel cell vehicle mile.

Answer 6

Yes but it would also produce a large amount of NO2 . The oxide of nitrogen as hydrogen burns very hot. And where would u get the Hydrogen??

Answer 7

The earth will not become flooded because we use more water than would come out of the engine. a hydrogen car has to idle for a while before it creates enough water to fill an 8 ounce cup. the byproduct of water would help slow down the global warming and make the desert a more habitable place in the long run. so truly it is a win win situation.

Answer 8

It will certainly raise the level of water vapor in the air, and thus increase the level of greenhouse gases.  Elecrolysis is not used for the commercial production of hydrogen, instead it is produced by steam reforming of hydrocarbons.  Thus, a portion of the hydrogen produced comes from fossil fuels.  In addition, the process produces CO2

Answer 9

No, if the source of the hydrogen is water; yes, if the source of the hydrogen is from a non-water based source (for example, the hydrogen in plant cellulose comes from water). Actually, the fuel cells aren't the problem, it is the fuel burnt in them that is the problem.

Answer 10

No, because the H is made from water and when it burns it simply replaces the original water it was made from.

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There are many measurements used when discussing electricity. ... 1 watt = 1 volt X 1 ampere. 1 watt = 3.41 BTU. 746 watts = 1 horsepower

At this price a 20 hp car would cost about $185,000 just for the fuel cells.  At these prices I doubt there will be much demand other than by the super rich who want the prestige of owning one.  I doubt there would be enough of them to cause any problem anyway.

Where does the hydrogen come from? They run electricity through water. That moves the pollution to the electric generating plants.  Making it at home with photovoltaic solar panels is also expensive because of initial costs and maintenance.  Then power must be used to compress the H into a tank to refuel the car and to keep the tank small enough your range would be limited to about 125 miles from home.

It would be better to try the clean and efficient steam-electric hybrid which would be fuel efficient, use any liquid or gaseous fuel and be very low in emissions.  It would not be limited in range as long as fuel was available and would operate as an electric vehicle about 80% of the time.

Answer 11

The conversion of hydrogen to water, also requires

oxygen. Even when the hydrogen comes from water

in an ionised state, it combines with free oxygen

when it burns  to produce water vapour, a major

greenhouse gas! The free oxygen is required for the

ever increasing world population of humans+animals

while forests are destroyed for other purposes.

I imagine that somehow we would still create other

problems while solving one. No doubt we would make

some progress, I would suggest a robust multifacet

solution to fuels for engines, where solar driven engines

is an agressive option.

Answer 12

I don't think you should be worrying about flooding.  If oil is replaced then the whole world economy will collapse.  There's more than petrol/gas comes from oil.  US politicians have even admitted that their entire economy is based upon oil, and they are prepared to go to 'any' lengths to ensure a constant supply; as they are.  Don't concern yourself over something that you can do nothing about.

Answer 13

depends on whether you used water to make the hydrogen in the first place, only using the energy and replacing what was taken out.

Answer 14

No, as (a) it's water vapour and (b) the hydrogen is obtained from water, so it's just recycled.

But water vapour *is* a greenhouse gas....