How long will it take before gasoline is replaced by another energy source? Will it be replaced by hydrogen?

Answer 1

When oil gets to about 1000 dollars a barrel, other energy sources become more economic.

Answer 2

There is no worse possible fuel than hydrogen.
It has low energy density.
It leaks out of whatever you put it in.
It is expensive to produce.
It is even more expensive to compress.

Side effects - you will use more energy making hydrogen than is used in the gasoline it replaces. And you will be getting 150km/tank where you would get 400km/tank in the same space using gasoline. And that's if you drive it right after filling it because two weeks later, the hydrogen tank is half empty.

Whoever comes up with a low-carbon synthetic gasoline that is relatively inexpensive will change the world.

The ideal synthetic gasoline - an easily stored liquid with high energy and needing no special handling. If you add non-flammable until mixed with something else inthe engine, all the better.

Now if they'd only hurry up with fusion... that would be the end of using oil and natural gas to produce electricity.

Answer 3

If it is to be replaced by hydrogen, we will need to find a way to isolate the hydrogen atom from other compounds, because hydrogen rarely is found alone, but in substances like water and hydrogen peroxide, etc...

The current method is using electricity to separate hydrogen from the O2 in water, and then pumping the hydrogen into the car. The unfortunate thing is, you need a lot of electricity to make hydrogen fuel, and where do we get electricity? We get it from mostly power plants. What fuels do most power plants use to make electricity? That would be fossil fuels such as coal, which is one of the main pollutant causing global warming.

We can't dam every river, we can't put wind mills on every hill...I suggest filling the deserts with solar panels for hundreds of square miles, but that still wouldn't be enough to satisfy the world's market.

The most far-reaching research of power is fusion. The same source that powers the sun's enormous energy. If we can harness this power, we can have all the power we will ever need forever. Look at my source..

Answer 4

Hydrogen is not an energy source, it is an energy carrier. Some other form of power needs to be used to get hydrogen, usually from reforming methane (48%), petroleum cracking (30%), coal (18%) or by electrolysis of water (4%). The first three methods are still using fossil fuels and doesn't fix the problems associated with them, like increasing rarity and cost or environmental issues. Water electrolysis requires electricity from other sources, maybe nuclear, solar or petroleum based and so does not reduce the issues of those methods of energy production.

Hydrogen has lots of problems as an energy carrier as it is. There is a proposal by Graham Cowan to use a Boron/Boria energy carrier cycle instead of hydrogen (second link).

A french company is also working on cars powered by compressed air. The car uses a piston, is automatically cooled by exhaust air, and can be recharged by any air compressor or plugged in at home so that the engine works in reverse.

Answer 5

Gas will be replaced as soon as it is economically feasible. In Brazil they are beginning to use pure ethanol to power cars. It is a great idea for them since they have a 'power cane' crop that can produce a large amount fuel.

Hydrogen can be produced quickly and inexpensively, but the real downfall with hydrogen as a fuel in cars is storage. Hydrogen is very explosive and so a serious storage tank would be needed.

Answer 6

Hydrogen takes far more energy to make than it's worth. The next generation of fuels will probably be renewable gasoline made from plants, such as ethanol or biodiesel.

Answer 7

There are and have been for years cars and buses running on hydrogen. The problem is "it's to expensive to produce". Unfortunately, we depend more and more on buying oil from other countries. If we continue the we're going the rest of the world will be rich and we wont be able to drive our cars. The oil companies don't care where their profits come from, just keep them coming!

Answer 8

Gasoline will be replaced by another energy source as soon as the mammoth corporations discover how to make another energy source more profitable than gasoline. -RKO-

Answer 9

GM just previewed a new Hydrogen SUV,They said they invested 1 billion dollars so far.They want more investors,to bring down the price of the vehicles and making the hydrogen more available and cheaper and easier to produce.I hope it will,because the by product is water and its so clean you can drink it.

Answer 10

Before hydrogen is considered as a fuel choice it has to made more available and cheaper. Gas is here to stay until they develop cold fusion and then we can run cars on our trash!