The Feasibility of Hydrogen Vehicles

The Feasibility of Hydrogen Vehicles

A hydrogen vehicle, as the name suggests is powered by hydrogen instead of gasoline, as is the case in contemporary vehicles.  The vehicles can be buses, cargo bikes, PHB bikes, trains, motorcycles, golf-carts, wheelchairs, airplanes, ships, submarines and even rockets. Such vehicles convert hydrogen into energy through electro-chemical conversion (Fuel-cell conversion) or combustion. In the electro-chemical conversion engines, hydrogen reacts with oxygen to produce electricity and water. The electricity powers the traction motor. In the combustion engines on the other hand, hydrogen is combusted in engine similar to the traditional combustion engines in contemporary vehicles. 

Extracting hydrogen power for use in vehicles is a complex process. Hydrogen and Oxygen are the two natural elements that make water. Hydrogen is not regarded as a source of energy but a carrier of the same mainly because extracting the same from water takes much energy. To date, there is no efficient technology for use in extracting hydrogen energy. Even established carmakers like Ford Motor Company and Renault-Nissan have dropped plans to develop hydrogen cars mainly because of the costs involved and the lack of a reliable hydrogen production plants. 

The most definite utilization of hydrogen in vehicles is evident in rockets. This is mainly based on the gas’s ability to give the high exhaust velocity and low net weight to the propellant.  In airplanes, the use of hydrogen engines is still in the trial phase. The major obstacle in the development of hydrogen vehicles is mainly cost related. In addition to the high costs, the hydrogen fuel cells are also fragile thus making them unreliable for use in vibrations and bumps generated by automobiles. Most hydrogen engines require the use of rare catalysts such as platinum, thus making the cost even more prohibitive. Engineers are however researching on what else can be used as a catalyst in order to lower the costs. Nickel-tin is a nonmetal catalyst that is under serious consideration by the engineers.  

Another hindrance in the development of hydrogen vehicles is the fact that the fuel cell can solidify in freezing conditions. This means that the Hydrogen vehicles are only operational on temperatures above 32 F or 0 Celsius. However, this concern is mainly before engine start-up since the engine can generate enough heat to maintain enough operational temperatures.  To solve this problem, engineers think that the inclusion of a pre-heating device or the use of a fuel cell that has some form of heating element would solve this problem. 

There are also concerns about the service life of hydrogen vehicles. Although the service life in cycling has been confirmed ay 7,300 hours, the target for heavy-duty vehicles such as buses is still under research. In such vehicles, the target of service life is set at 30,000 hours. Large-scale development of hydrogen vehicles would lead to decreased green house gases emissions since hydrogen fuels do not produce carbon dioxide. For this to happen however, engineers and researchers must overcome the challenges presented in the production, transportation and storage of the hydrogen-powered vehicles.

Watch the video related to hydrogen engine

Engine Running on Hydrogen and Oxygen Gas 5-31-2008 We ran another test again on June 6, 2008 and our findings were as follows. When the engine is not getting enough HHO gas and it is running slow as you see in the video it has the tendency of backfiring. We doubled the balloons one inside another that add more pressure and the engine ran a lot faster without any backfires. We will be doing another demonstration video demonstrating with the welder producing the hydrogen oxygen gas….

Help answer the question about hydrogen engine

how does a hydrogen engine work?
I am interesrted in the workings of hydrogen engines for automobiles..NOT booster kits

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2 Responses to “The Feasibility of Hydrogen Vehicles”

  1. WPMixer says:

    Oh, not to mention it takes FAR more electricity to refine oil than it does produce hydrogen.

  2. Belle says:

    As I mentioned in another answer, you mine as well be driving a bomb. Hydrogen cars are extremely dangerous. We use hydrogen gas, the same gas put in a hydrogen gas put in your car, in extremely destructive bombs for our military. Yes, there is a much higher chance of it blowing rather than just catching fire. The gas expands quickly and is easily mixed with oxygen making the fire spread quickly and without energy loss. It is perfect for explosions, which is why they shouldn't put it in cars until they find a safer way to do it.

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