| | | Hydrogen Cars

From WikiVerde

Hydrogen is the most commonly found element in the universe, and today, it is being considered as an alternative fuel, which may keep both emissions and costs low. However before the gas can become a viable fuel, hydrogen has to be manufactured and then stored in a liquid form.

1 Hydrogen Fuel Cells
2 Hydrogen Cars
3 Manufacturers of Hydrogen Cars
4 Hydrogen Cars The World Over
5 Let’s Clean Up Our Act With Hydrogen Cars!
6 References

Hydrogen Fuel Cells

Fuel cells are generally used to harness the propellant power of hydrogen. Similar to a battery, a fuel cell is an electrochemical device which constantly renews the reactants in the process. A fuel cell generates hydrogen by dividing and reconnecting atoms in the membranes of the cell, thus creating electricity. The hydrogen in a fuel cell can either be generated from green resources, or from non-renewable sources.

Hydrogen Cars

A hydrogen car is a vehicle that uses hydrogen as a fuel, usually with the use of hydrogen fuel cells. However there are some hydrogen vehicles that normal combustion engines that run on hydrogen instead of conventional fuels like gasoline or diesel. Hydrogen fuel cell cars are cheap to make and maintain, and offer good performance and range.

Advantages of Hydrogen Cars

Hydrogen cars can help us reduce our reliance on rapidly disappearing oil resources, which are increasingly expensive. Greenhouse gas emissions are reduced as well, and hydrogen cars offer an enormous advantage – the only emissions generated by a hydrogen car are heat and water vapor. It’s wonderful to have an alternative to gas guzzling, pollutant generating vehicles that emit poisons like carbon monoxide, and greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, ozone, and tiny pollutant particles.Hydrogen cars can be zero polluting if the source used to generate the hydrogen gas is renewable – such as solar or wind power.

Disadvantages of Hydrogen Cars

Unfortunately hydrogen cars are not likely to be widely available on a commercial basis for perhaps another decade. Hydrogen is rather difficult to store, and this will be a problem in the use of hydrogen cars. Also, there is no refuelling infrastructure in place for hydrogen cars. Since prospects for hydrogen cars are not yet certain, investment in such a technology should weighed against the benefits. Hydrogen cars can be expensive, as well. And unfortunately, the generation of hydrogen can release quite a lot of carbon dioxide. The infrastructure to service and run these vehicles is also going to be a huge expense for those already committed to gas and diesel vehicles.

Using hydrogen cars will lower air pollution, reduce the effects of global climate change, global warming and global dimming, but some experts feel that the same results can be achieved by other means, which have lower financial and environmental costs.

Manufacturers of Hydrogen Cars

Many car makers all over the world are looking into the production of hydrogen cars. Chevrolet, for example, makes the Equinox FCEV while Honda makes the FCX Clarity. BMW and Mazda are researching hydrogen combustion engines, and Hyundai, General Motors and Daimler-Chrysler are studying fuel cells. Companies like Ford are into both methods.

Soon, BMW and Honda will be releasing hydrogen cars on the general market. Honda is working on fuel cell cars like the V-3, the V-1, which uses a metal hydride fuel tank, and V-2, which converts methanol to hydrogen to run its engine. BMW is making the Hydrogen 7, a high end sedan great for everyday use that offers a dual fuel option with a seventeen pound hydrogen storage tank and a nineteen gallon petrol tank. General Motors will be putting wallet-friendly hydrogen cars on the market by 2010, while Hypercar Inc. will be selling hydrogen cars by 2015. Manufacturers are also looking at dual fuel vehicle systems that can use either petrol or hydrogen.

Hydrogen Cars The World Over

In California and Japan, many companies that operate fleets of vehicles like buses, trucks, taxis, etc. are already using hydrogen fuel cells to power their engines. In the United States, President Bush has put about $2 billion into studying hydrogen as a fuel, while the governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger is putting considerable effort into the construction of two hundred hydrogen filling stations from British Columbia to Baja California, to be achieved by the year 2010. The Los Alamos National Laboratory or LANL has been studying hydrogen fuel cells for nearly thirty years.

Based on research undertaken at the Weizmann Institute, a method of using solar power and zinc to generate hydrogen was developed. Engineuity, an Israeli company has developed a car that generates its own fuel! This car will utilize long coils of magnesium or aluminium which are inserted into Metal-Steam combustors (the replacement for an ordinary petrol tank) where very hot water will release oxygen that bonds with the metal from the coil to form metal oxides; and hydrogen that is used to power the engine. The metal oxide residues can be vacuumed out and recycled easily.

Refuelling involves a simple process of replacing the wire and hot water. This system has the usual advantages of economical fuel and zero emission of other hydrogen powered vehicles, and is more efficient than these others. Heat is used better and range is fairly wide, similar to that of an ordinary car. However, the metal coil used is heavy and this can be a minor disadvantage. Low running costs and zero pollution make Engineuity's Hydrogen car an attractive option for environmentally conscious vehicle owners.

Let’s Clean Up Our Act With Hydrogen Cars!

If we are to seriously consider hydrogen as an alternative fuel, infrastructure will be one of the first things we have to get into place. Filling stations, for example will have to form a network across land masses. And of course, we have to commit ourselves sincerely to the objective of improving air quality with the use of vehicles like hydrogen cars.

Why don’t you look at a hydrogen car when you buy your next vehicle? Or you could convert your present car’s engine to one that uses hydrogen for fuel. Pollute less, breathe cleaner air, save money on petrol and upkeep of your vehicle - this is cost-effective and ecologically sound – you would be doing the world a big favor!