Is there a way to make my truck...?

Question

run on hydrogen? I don't have alot of money, so where could I get it converted, and where can I get hydrogen? Can it be a diesel truck too? I am thinking of getting a diesel, but if hydrogen only works on regular gas trucks, I'll go with that.

Thanks!

Answer 1

Not possible at this time.  You want to use cutting edge technology but not spend much money.

Even if you can figure out a way to make it run on Hydrogen, you wouldn't be able to take it very far.  There is no refueling infrastructure like gasoline or diesel.  You would need to carefully plan any trip to be able to refuel.

If you want to run on alternative fuel, I suggest purchasing something to run on Bio diesel, low sulfur diesel, or E85.

Bio Diesel would be your first choice.  Most diesels will run on bio diesel with little or no modifications.

E85 would be a good choice, but requires a vehicle made from the factory to run on this fuel.  Conversion kits are not available and would be very expensive.  These flex fuel vehicles have been around for only a couple of years.  You would need to purchase a new or fairly new vehicle.  Too expensive for what you ask.

Low sulfur diesels are just hitting the market.  Lots of changes to make them run as clean as the do.  You would need to purchase new as it would be unlikely to find one used.

Hybrids would also be OK, except they have been around for only a couple of years so you would need to buy new or a used one only a couple of years old.  If you find one that is more than a couple of years old there is a possibility that the battery pack would need to be replace soon, cutting into any savings.  Hybrids also do not give the promised fuel milage when driven in the real world.

Answer 2

Yes, you can, but it's a lot of work.  Here's a link.

http://www.hydrogennow.org/Facts/Theauto...

Answer 3

If you're working on the cheap, go diesel.  Biodiesel and WVO are proven technologies that let you go green, and they're cheap :)   Hydrogen is definitely NOT cheap!

Biodiesel works in any diesel engine unmodified, but it costs about the same as regular diesel fuel.  Millions of people use it.  

WVO is a little harder to use, but it's free :) most places.  You either brew your own biodiesel from the WVO, or you modify the vehicle so it can handle WVO near-directly.  (you still need to filter it.)  

Hydrogen really isn't viable yet for the home mechanic, and may never be.  The #1 problem is storage, and the  #2 problem is the efficiency of the hydrogen "engine" on the car.   Fuel cells will someday be efficient.  Gas engines work too, but they're very inefficient, which makes problem #1 much, much worse.

Bottom line if you're considering hydrogen,  go electric instead.  You'll spend more for a good hydrogen tank and compressor system than you would for a good set of electric vehicle batteries.  And more on the hydrogen generator than you'd spend on EV motor, controller, etc.  And the EV will be vastly longer range, vastly more efficient and cheaper to run.  And you could recharge it anywhere there's power, and even adapt a hybrid regenerator for long hauls.   For the homebrew conversion, electric > hydrogen at this point.