Hydrogen Cars rock!!!

I just want ot say that hydrogen cars are the anwser. You put in hydrogen (something we have an unlimited supply of) and in stead of emissions you get water! I really think they are the solution to the car problem.

 

I hate to rain on the car party, but even if cars required "no fuel", they could still classified as something that harms the natural world. Humans are paving the world.

 

mmm... hydrogen cannot be found naturally. It must be produced with water synthesis, and that process actually costs more energy than the hydrogen would give to your car. Sorry, I think it's not the answer.

 

Actually, couldn't an outside source (i.e. a car battery) be used in electrolyzing the water. I believe it takes 1.2v to electrolyze water, i don't know at what rate water can be electrolyzed but in theory it seems plausible.

 

i thought energy couldn't be created or destroyed meaning that if you used a car battery to eletrolyze water the outcome would be the amount the car battery put in. alternative fuels such as hydrogen and methane take more fossil fuels to produce than an actual car would consume. sure the car will burn it clean, but it won't be as efficient, and the damage to the atmosphere has already been done.

bike riding, walking, and public transport are the answer!

 

Hydrogen technology is here, but given the current cost of production and the lack of supporting infrastructure, we're looking at vehicles that easily cost 25% more and operation costs that far exceed our current and projected fuel consumption costs for the next several years. Hydrogen may be a viable alternative in the future, but even some scientists involved in the development of this technology admit that they're a long way off. The hydrogen car has been about ten years away for over thirty years. It's a bait and switch at this point. Auto makers don't want consumers to turn their attention to electric vehicles because that technology is here...now. Look at the major investors in hydrogen technology and then tell me how psyched you are about the H-car.

 

Yeah, in the end electricity would, and is, the best. Though the cost of them is enormous, and still will be as long as those big oil companies pull the governmental strings.

 

There's actually a possible solution in the works.

The water separation energy budget can be handed to the sun, especially using some of the higher-efficiency techniques instead of pure photovoltaic generation.

Parabolic reflection driving a Stirling engine has actually shown a conversion efficiency of better than double the best photovoltaic available right now, even the thinfilm amorphous.

The biggest problem with hydrogen isn't the separation (which, yes, is a bit of a bitch) it's the storage of a highly flammable gas that has the nasty habit of molecular 'seepage' through storage containers.

 

From what I hear, the hydrogen storage problem has been solved with an invention that just produces the amount of hydrogen that is required at the moment it is needed to be used.

 

every system has inefficiency, to create hydrogen requires the splitting of bonds. This requires energy to be put into the water. Unless you can convince the water otherwise, it will require more energy than it can handle...

put it this way

water is a happy, stable and low energy molecule. It's found an awesome configuration of existence that serves it well. You've got to really encourage that water to let go of this comfort zone...and you can't do that perfectly.

If you could find a way to manipulate water into freely breaking up, then what would stop a chain reaction?

 

Hydrogen car BAD! There is a terrible flaw in the idea of using this fuel. No engine is 100% efficient in burning the fuel. While all of the hydrogen that burns is turned into water, some of the fuel is expelled into the atmosphere. There it combines with other molecules including sulfur. Result? Acid rain from hell. (I saw this explained on NOVA a few years back)

 

hydrogen IS an efficient method of storing energy. So, if we can get solar cells working efficiently, and increase the efficiency of water>HHO gas then we are fine for the most part.

 

This happens in a conventional combustion engine anyway. Probably to a greater extent here as there are always sulphur impurities in oil based fuel, much more than in the air absorbed by the engine be it traditional combustion or new hydrogen.

 

The biggest problem with hydrogen is that it's so difficult and dangerous to handle. Remember the Hindenberg? And are you going to install all that cryogenic equipment on a car? I don't see this as a very viable solution.

 

Oddly enough, Hydrogen gas wasn't a major contributing factor in the Hindenberg. Hydrogen gas' natural bouyancy causes it to move upwards at around 20m/s. By contrast in average atmospheric pressures, fire can only maintain a flamefront (the speed that fire can move) is around 10m/s. Therefore as soon as the top of the hindenberg was ruptured, gas was escaping upwards about twice as fast as the fire could chase it. In the Hindenberg's case, it was the dope that was used to treat the skin and internal membranes that burned readily, we dont make cars with dope and canvas.

 

hydrogen is great but it still uses electric so electric cars are the future.

 

Hydrogen technology was proosed back in the 1800's, been in use (beyond scientific research) since the 1950's, there is nothing new about it and there is nothing wrong with it beyond the issue of the storage of the gas.

This idea that it takes more energy to split water then hydrogen produces is nothing but noise.

It takes more energy to produce oil then you get out of it as well in a lot of the processes that are being used today.

The point to a hydrogen fuel cell for vehicles is that overall, it creates a lot less pollution then using an internal combustion engine.

And yes, a hydrogen car is an electric car. The only emissions it produces are ones that are also produced in ANY combustion engine.


It is a good first step (which has already been taken) away from fossil fuels, but it is not the final answer.

 

While hydrogen is promising, it's not THE answer. We still haven't found that yet...

 

better public transit, an all electric is my answer!

in reality I just ride my bike!

cars are so last century

 

Cheap, abundant, pollution-free hydrogen from sunlight and water to power the hydrogen fuel vehicles.

Novel Alloy Could Produce Hydrogen Fuel from Sunlight
Aug 31, 2011
(excerpts)
Scientists from the University of Kentucky and the University of Louisville have determined that an inexpensive semiconductor material can be "tweaked" to generate hydrogen from water using sunlight. ...the UK-UofL team demonstrated that an alloy...has the right electrical properties to enable solar light energy to split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen, a process known as photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting. When the alloy is immersed in water and exposed to sunlight, the chemical bond between the hydrogen and oxygen molecules in water is broken. The hydrogen can then be collected. The GaN-Sb alloy is the first simple, easy-to-produce material to be considered a candidate for PEC water splitting. The alloy functions as a catalyst in the PEC reaction, meaning that it is not consumed and may be reused indefinitely.

Hydrogen Fuel Tech Gets Boost from Low-Cost, Efficient Catalyst
ScienceDaily
May 3, 2011
(excerpts)
Scientists have engineered a cheap, abundant alternative to the expensive platinum catalyst and coupled it with a light-absorbing electrode to make hydrogen fuel from sunlight and water. Hydrogen is an energy dense and clean fuel, which upon combustion releases only water. Today, most hydrogen is produced from natural gas which results in large CO2-emissions. An alternative, clean method is to make hydrogen fuel from sunlight and water. The process is called photo-electrochemical, or PEC, water splitting. When sun hits the PEC cell, the solar energy is absorbed and used for splitting water molecules into its components, hydrogen and oxygen.

Hydrogen Storage In Nanoparticles Works: Outlook For Hydrogen Cars Improved
ScienceDaily
Apr. 1, 2008
(excerpts)
Dutch chemist Kees Baldé has demonstrated that hydrogen can be efficiently stored in nanoparticles. This allows hydrogen storage to be more easily used in mobile applications. Baldé discovered that 30 nanometre particles of the metal hydride sodium alanate make the favourable extraction and storage of hydrogen possible.

Would You Believe 633 Miles on a 40-Gallon Tank of Liquid Hydrogen?
Inovation
August / September 2007
(excerpts)
Visitors and employees at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory last January might have spotted a white Toyota Prius hybrid vehicle driving continuously around the square-mile site. The car was making history by setting a world record for the longest distance driven on one tank of fuel in a vehicle modified to run on hydrogen. In setting the distance record, a group of Livermore researchers took another step toward helping create a clean transportation system based on hydrogen. The group made history with a prototype of a concept called cryogenic-compressed tanks. These superinsulated, high-pressure tanks contain extremely cold, liquid hydrogen instead of the room-temperature compressed hydrogen gas typically used in hydrogen test vehicles.

The Prius, which has a combination electric motor and small internal combustion engine, traveled 653 miles on a tank containing almost 40 gallons of liquid hydrogen. The overall fuel economy for the driving conditions used by the Livermore team was about 105 kilometers per kilogram of hydrogen, which is equivalent to about 65 miles per gallon of gasoline. Coincidently, 1 kilogram of hydrogen has about the same energy content as 1 gallon of gasoline.

Today, more than 500 hydrogen-powered cars are on the road worldwide. Most use internal combustion engines, which are converted to run on hydrogen with only minor modifications to the fuel-injection system. When burning hydrogen, they generate zero greenhouse gases and only small amounts of nitrogen oxides. A more energy-efficient use of hydrogen would entail replacing the internal combustion engine with fuel cells and an electric motor. In fuel cells, hydrogen reacts with oxygen, producing electricity to power the vehicle. Water vapor is the only emission.