Fossil Fuel Consumption and Greenhouse Gas Emission Essay

The Hydrogen Fuel Cell could revolutionize the world. This ingenious technology, which creates electricity from the chemical reactions of hydrogen and oxygen has, in its 150-year history, passed many of the critical tests along the path from invention to innovation. Recent developments in fuel cell technology and concurrent developments within the energy and automotive industries have brought the world to brink of the fuel cell age and the hydrogen economy.

Today there are several hydrogens powered cars and busses in the world. Those vehicles, thanks to their zero emission, are a step towards the environment melioration, a positive trait nullified woefully by the actuality of not being cost efficient yet.

It derives energy from spinning water turbines. Hydroelectric power is a low-cost, renewable, air pollution-free energy source. Unfortunately there is not much room for this source left in the US and building large dams, flooding valuable river valleys, and eliminating free-flowing rivers are the negative externalities of this alternative. Electrolysis of water could be used to convert biomass (plants or plant-based materials) into methane or electricity to generate hydrogen gas. Current technology with little improvement could lead to these fuels being used more abundantly. Moreover, the storage, use, and transportation of these fuels would be

Honda has already produced a hydrogen fuel cell concept car they claim is “overall 64% energy efficient”. To put this into perspective in the average gasoline combustion engine “only about 20 percent of the thermal-energy content of the gasoline is converted into mechanical work”, making it 20% energy efficient [5]. This new line of cars could bring about jobs in the automotive industry and all industries that branch from it. As of right now the commercial market for hydrogen gas produced from the use of fossil fuels is at about $100 billion. A majority of this hydrogen goes into producing fertilizers and petrochemicals [1]. All it would take is an inexpensive source of green hydrogen, such as the one recently discovered, to completely change this industry.Overall hydrogen has the ability to bring about jobs and continued advancements in every market and industry touched by it. This could be just about every industry when considering how important transportation and shipping are to the economy; hydrogen would give them an inexpensive fuel for transport. Hydrogen fuel could do this all the while solving our most important problem of finding a renewable energy source.

The element in fuel cells is hydrogen. Chemical reactions between the electrodes and the electrolyte generate electricity.

Hyundai has engineered a vehicle that uses hydrogen cells for power. These hydrogen cells create electricity through an “electrochemical reaction with onboard hydrogen and oxygen in the air” (Stoffels). The final product is water that is emitted through the vehicle’s tailpipe. Changing the hydrogen cell takes around ten minutes to complete, and hydrogen fueled vehicles can travel around 300 miles compared to the normal average of 310 gallons per tank of gas(United States Department of

Recent years have shown an increasingly large need for a practical renewable energy source for such reasons as diminishing fossil fuels and increases in greenhouse gasses. Hydrogen appears to be a way out of this gasoline-dug hole, or at least, a way out in the future. Hydrogen fuel cell cars are being engineered as we speak as the technologies to refuel them cleanly are being proposed. Unfortunately, most of the technologies associated with hydrogen are still in the prototype/pre-production stages and require better enhancements before becoming mainstream. This paper assesses the practicality of hydrogen power in cars both now and in the future while explicating the actual process of how a

automobiles will be needed. Hydrogen fuel cells may very well become the chief replacement for

Sustainable hydrogen Energy remains fundamental to economic development and welfare of society. To reach levels similar to those of developed countries being, many countries will need, and try to, increase their energy consumption. In addition, there is still a large number of people (more than a billion, according to estimates from the IEA) without access to advanced forms of energy, and will also contribute to increased overall consumption when achieved, hopefully, this access (Agbossou, et al., 2001).

According to an analysis performed by Singliar[11] on Honda FCX assuming an average distance of 12,000 km/year, annual hydrogen consumption will be 140 kg. Honda has developed a “Solar Hydrogen Station” which produces 0.5 kg of hydrogen per day.[12] This amounts to 180.5 kg of hydrogen per year, easily satisfying the need of a personal fuel cell vehicle.

Fuel/Maker plans to develop a $1,500 refueling station over the next three years in the United States. The pump will be able to be mounted on doors on the garage wall. Despite the initial increase in price of the car, the fuel cost will be 40 cents per liter compared to 70 cents per liter for gasoline. Fuel cell vehicles face the job in finding room to store hydrogen in the car and getting it to the consumer. Safety is an issue because hydrogen is highly flammable and volatile. Chrysler is pursuing this idea now. The cost of a fuel cell is only ten times the cost of an internal combustion engine today and the size has been reduced greatly.

With gas prices escalating and fossil fuels becoming limited, scientists have been researching an alternative fuel source that will be more abundant and cost efficient. Issues with our current fuel source include the pollution that is emitted in our air and water sources and the fact that fossil fuels are becoming scarce. One alternative to gasoline is the use of hydrogen as a fuel source. With hydrogen as a fuel source pollution will be in decline, it has become increasingly more abundant than fossil fuels through extracting hydrogen from various sources, and is domestically produced.

Gasoline powered vehicles are on the decline. Hydrogen is on its way to remove gasoline as the world’s fuel. Hydrogen powered cars are rising in popularity for many reasons such as low emissions and efficiency, but there are major obstacles in the way. Hydrogen as a fuel is the change needed to save the world from global warming.

More than 15% of the total energy use in the United States is from the residential sector, whose

For the past three decades Oil dominates the agenda of political discussion. With scares over price volatility, sizes of reserves, international imports and least of which are the environmental impacts due to carbon dioxide and other emissions. Various speculations and educated guesses place our total depletion of crude oil within the next 50 years and there is a general consensus between environmentalists that we steer toward a hydrogen transportation system given the projected work and nonexistent carbon dioxide emissions (Environmental Technologies class lecture, Santa Clara University). However many barriers stand in the way of attaining such a goal, most of which pertaining