Essay on Hydrogen Cars: Helping the Earth One Car at a Time

A fuel cell is, in principle, a very simple electrochemical device. The chemical reaction that powers hydrogen fuel cells is the same as that which occurs when hydrogen burns. The chemical equation for this reaction is: 2H2 + O2 ( 2H2O + energy. "Normally hydrogen burns, reacting with oxygen from the air, producing water, heat and light. ... In the fuel cell the chemical reaction is exactly the same, but instead of producing light and heat energy, electrical energy is produced."2 All fuel cells consist of an electrolyte (a substance that allows only the passage of ions) sandwiched between two electrodes. When a fuel containing hydrogen is passed over the negative electrode, otherwise known as an anode, it is ionized. Ionization of the fuel, often accomplished with the assistance of a catalyst, removes electrons from the hydrogen creating positively charged hydrogen ions and negatively charged free electrons. Since only the ions can pass through the electrolyte situated between the electrodes, the electrons must find another route to the positive electrode or cathode, where they will be reunited with the hydrogen ions and combined with oxygen atoms to form water. The electrons passing around the electrolyte constitute an electric current, and thus can be used to provide power during their journey from anode to cathode.3

is between forty and fifty thousand dollars, which with the turbine life-span taken into account is equivalent to around 1.2 cents per kilowatt-hour. The life-span measure of cost per unit energy puts wind power at a considerable advantage. Nuclear power’s production cost equates with 1.72 cents per kWh, natural gas comes to an average of 5.77 cents, coal 1.8, solar 2.1 and hydropower half a cent per kWh (Primavera. W.P, 2005).

As you go throughout your day, you use energy many times. Turning on the lights, using the toaster, taking the bus to school, all examples of using energy. Slowly, the fossil fuels that we are burning to get this energy are harming the environment. Hydrogen energy and biofuels would bring many benefits to Long Beach,

However, some pundits are concerned that adopting hydrogen energy as the sole strategy for the issues facing the automobile’s future is problematic because of the lengthy time frame in which they are projected to become ubiquitous. Furthermore, the present infrastructure for the distribution of hydrogen fuel sources or the production of hydrogen fuel cells is not only insufficient, but slow to develop. As such, fossil fuels are presently the main source for hydrogen production, which means that hydrogen vehicles do not successfully decouple the automobile from a fossil fuel economy. This is also widely inefficient because it will generate four times the carbon dioxide emissions generated by gasoline efficient automobiles. Furthermore, compressing hydrogen for the purposes of

Lo addresses further alternative, aside from hydrogen, more specifically, electrified rail. Pointing out the rising costs of electrifying rail infrastructure stands as of 2003 at $2 Million per mile, ballooning to over $10 Million per mile in present day (Lo, 2013). By taking a hard approach on the arguments for all other options rather than hydrogen, the author captures a sense of growing question in the direction of why else might this technology not yet in use.

Instead, if you use that electricity to split water, separate the hydrogen with extreme purity, pressurize it to crazy levels (or, even worse, liquefy), transfer it to a giant (even in liquid form) hydrogen storage tank in the car and then recombine it with oxygen to generate electricity, you would be lucky to get ~20% efficiency. Expensive, complex, bulky and super inefficient. It loses on every dimension.” Musk said in an email exchange with Tim Urban (Urban). Now on to gas engines they have over 200 parts to an electric engine’s 10.

Proponents of a world-scale hydrogen economy argue that hydrogen can be an environmentally cleaner source of energy to end-users, particularly in transportation applications, without the release of pollutants like particulate matter and carbon dioxide. However hydrogen continues to have technical obstacles associated with it, including storage issues, due to the fact that hydrogen has a high energy density by weight, but has a low energy density by volume when not highly compressed or liquefied.

At this point in time, hydrogen fuel is not used for much else besides in spacecraft, but that is because it’s hard to come by on Earth. If it was to be sent from the colonized moon in large quantities, companies would certainly pay for it as it is very effective and efficient.

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

Even though hydrogen as a fuel seems to answer every problem we want it to; it also has setbacks. Although we have the technology now to bring us an endless supply of hydrogen fuel we do not have the storage or infrastructure capabilities for it. “Hydrogen

Nuclear power works by a process called fission. The type of fission used in most reactors is where a neutron collides with a uranium-238 atom, splitting it into krypton, argon, spare neutrons and heat. The spare neutrons start a chain reaction for more uranium-238 atoms to split. The heat produced by fission heats the water surrounding the fuel rods, which circulates through a pipe. The heated water passes through a primary loop, then passes through another set of water heating the second supply of water creating steam. The steam then passes through a secondary loop. The steam turns a turbine connected to a generator, creating power. The steam in the secondary loop then passes through a pipe which runs through cold water, cooling the steam into back to water. Then dumps it into a river, lake, or ocean. The amount of water would eventually deplete, so then a third loop, a tertiary loop, pulls water in from the river, ocean or lake, and puts it into the second set of water. The three sets of water never physically touch.

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

E. Testa, C. Giammusso, M. Bruno and P. Maggiore, "Analysis of environmental benefits resulting from use of hydrogen," Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy, vol. 16, pp. 875-890, 2013.

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

In order to understand the why behind the need to change from fossil fuels to hydrogen power, it is necessary to understand what that power is and how it works. Hydrogen is the most abundant and simplest element on earth. It is most commonly found as part of water. In its pure gaseous form it is extremely light, but when ignited in this state releases a large amount of energy in an explosion. In this violent reaction the hydrogen combines with free oxygen molecules in the atmosphere and creates water vapor. This is similar to the way gasoline is combined with air and ignited in an internal combustion engine in the cars used today and like with gasoline, the combustion of hydrogen has risks. In addition to the risk, some of the energy released in the reaction is lost in the form of sound and heat. As an alternative to burning, these same gases can be combined with the use of catalysts to extract the free electrons produced as liquid water is formed(Popovici and Hoble Dorel). Using cables connected to a fuel cell such as this, those electrons go through a circuit, generating electricity. This is more efficient than combustion because less energy is wasted in the form of sound and heat. Going further, greater efficiency for this reaction can be had the lower the temperature it is allowed to take place at, with 83% power at 25◦C(77◦ F)(Popovici and Hoble Dorel). As fuel cells are created with better heat management and