What's the difference between hydrogen and hybrid cars?

Question

i read a book about them and don't know if they are the same...also, which saves the enviroment better?

Answer 1

Well basically hydrogen is an atom with an atomic weight of one as designated by Mendeleev.  A hybrid car is something that gets you to work in the morning and allows you the prestige of saving the world from the utter chaos of global warming.

Answer 2

Hybrid cars are powered by a small internal combustion engine (ICE) and a battery driven electric motor..  The battery powers the car during "stop and go" city driving  and is recharged by the ICE which powers the car at more efficient constant speeds (such as highway driving).  The higher gas mileage derives largely from the higher efficiency, smaller ICE running at a more efficient constant speed and letting the electric motor power the car during the inefficient "stop and go" drive cycle.

Hydrogen fueled cars are powered by fuel cells which drive an efficient electric motor.  The fuel cell derives its energy from the electrochemical reaction of Hydrogen gas at the cathode and Oxygen (from air) at the anode of  cells in an appropriate series parallel arrangement consistent with voltage and power requirements.

Irrespective of optimistic projections for commercializing the hydrogen car, there appear to be many problems yet  to be resolved before such claims have merit. For example: fuel cells must use platinum catalyst-- thus driving costs upward (notwithstanding some successes in reducing the loading per cell); currently,the primary source of hydrogen is from steam reformation of natural gas but it is not clear what the price of natural gas will be as demand increases. New sources  including  photochemical, electrochemical and biological production processes are yet to be developed; currently the most viable way to carry hydrogen fuel on board is in high-tech containers  pressurized to as high as 10,000 psi. This does not bode well for cost and safety  considerations for carrying an adequate supply of fuel on board a vehicle.  Large vehicles such as trucks and buses may  provide the initial target market; finally, the foregoing unresolved issues inhibit establishing an infrastructure to produce, transport and distribute hydrogen fuel to a widespread user marketplace.

Answer 3

The difference is that a hydrogen car would burn hydrogen instead of gas for its fuel source while hybrids use some combination of fuels to propel the vehicle.  Hybrids come in many styles: hydrogen/electric, gas/electric, diesel/electric, just to name a few.  There are also a couple different types of hybrid drivetrain setups: series or parellel.  The parallel setup is what is used on all the hybrids available today (to my knowledge) and involves using both motors (electric and combustion) to move the vehicle.  The series setup involves the use of only the electric motor to drive the vehicle while the combustion engine simply spins a generator to either power the electric motor or charge the battery pack.  

As far as which is better for the environment, that is debatable.  Hydrogen isn't as clean as most people think.  Hydrogen is clean to use, yes, but getting the hydrogen in a useable state isn't.  There are a few ways to do it but the cheapest way, the only real economic way to do it, involves electrolysis and extracting it releases twice as many greenhouse gases into the atmosphere than a typical gasoline engine.  Plus, hydrogen doesn't contain as much energy per unit volume that gasoline does, so burning it is definitely not the most economical way to use it.  

Hybrids are the best answer.

Answer 4

Everyone loves hydrogen for either direct burning (internal combustion, like burning gasoline) or in a fuel cell (making electricity for an electric car) because in both cases only water vapor comes out the tail pipe.  Problem is...even though hydrogen is everywhere it is tightly bound up, mostly as the H2 in all the worlds H2O. To separate it out in order to burn it takes a hecka lot of energy! It makes NO sense to burn fossil fuels to produce hydrogen...you can use hydropower, or direct solar.  It is not very efficient....why not just use the electricity directly in a battery-driven car?

Plug in hybrids make the most sense (coming soon) because they store more energy in the batteries from charging overnight AND produce electricity for the batteries from their small engine. They can get upwards of 100 mpg vs current hybrids of 40 - 50 mpg (like a Prius).

There is a problem with all the production of those very expensive batteries, though...all those heavy metals to dispose of, too. So....jury is still out.  I would say...plug-in hybrid over anything using hydrogen.

Answer 5

Hybrid cars use a combination of gas engine and electric motor working together to give the highest possible effeciency from the combination. These are available now. Several manufacturers produce them.

Hydrogen power cars use hydrogen as the fuel instead of gas or deisel. This technology is still being worked on. I don't think any manufacturers are producing any for sale. Hydrogen can be made from water by separating the Hydrogen from the oxygen, but hydrogen alone is very unstable and burns much easier than gas which can make it very dangerous.