Is there a clean way to extract Hydrogen fuel?

Question

Honda plans to release a Hydrogen fuel cell car in 2008.

I know You can extract Hydrogen fuel by "splitting" water with an electric current, but that electricity comes from a power plant, which generates greenhouse gases. Is there a totally clean way to extract Hydrogen fuel?

Answer 1

There is no totally clean way. They all need power. This is the main reason we have not gone to hydrogen as a fuel in a big way already.

Answer 2

The hydrogen in water is like a big, big boulder. If that boulder is perched at the top of a hill, it represents energy waiting to be harnessed. All we have to do is push it down the hill.

A boulder already at the bottom of a hill, however, is not a source of energy.

Hydrogen in water, already 'burned' , is the boulder at the bottom of the hill. If you use electrolysis to separate the hydrogen from the water, you are using the energy of the electricity to push the boulder up the hill.

The electricity made that happen, and that's all the energy available. You won't get more energy from the boulder than you spent pushing it up the hill. This is how chemistry works, and this is why the hydrogen in water is not really a fuel - it is instead, just like a battery, a way to store the energy of electricity.