Simply Put. How do Hydrogen Cars Work?

Question

I have chemistry project, and the subject is Hydrogen Cars. I understand the basics, but not the details. Please try and be as simple as possible, but still provide detail.

1. How do hydrogen combustion engines work?

2. How is hydrogen created/where do we get it from?

Thank you!

Answer 1

you burn hydrogen in a combustion engine as you would gas.

The hydrogen can be obtained using electricity from water which produces both components which can be used in the engine, hydrogen & oxygen, the most important item needed is a catalyst to make the process more efficient.

Answer 2

Hydrogen combustion engines work on the otto engine principal. Same same as engines designed to burn gasoline.

Hydrogen is a basic element. Consists of a proton and an electron. This property means hydrogen bonds readily with other elements forming compounds such as water, ammonia, and petroleum.

Hydrogen is extracted by electrolysis of water or by one of several chemical process that result in hydrogen freed either on purpose or as a waste product.

Untapped hydrogen resources include Neptune where it exists in crystal form on the surface of the planet.

Answer 3

Hydrogen as a fuel for an internal combustion engine would be very inefficient because of the high cost of creating hydrogen. If one has hydrogen, one would want to use a fuel cell, such as a Ballard fuel cell, to convert hydrogen to DC electricity, and use the electricity to power electric motors.

The efficiency when going through a hydrogen fuel cell is far better.

Hydrogen acts as a reducing agent, whereas oxygen from the air acts as oxidizing agent, and in so doing set up a voltage that is based on the hydrogen-oxygen potential.

The amount of energy the fuel cell delivers is very much dependent on getting the water to leave the surface quickly.

Where do we get hydrogen?

A lot of hydrogen is produced by splitting down methane (CH4) or  less commonly ammonia (NH3)

Methane is from natural gas, while ammonia is created by reacting nitrogen from the air with hydrogen... which says that ammonia is just a way to carry hydrogen produced in an earlier step.

The earlier step is hydrolysis of water. Electricity is used to split water into hydrogen and oxygen, the very reverse of the fuel cell process.

Recent patents have been issued that use a nuclear bombardment to greatly enhance the energy efficiency involved in hydrolysis, but at a chemical level it is still the same reaction.

Answer 4

i couldn't find the specific questions on google, but i looked up how do hydrogen cars work and this is what i got. (on my source list)