How easy is it to make hydrogen at home?

Question

I would love to buy one of those hydrogen powered ENV bikes, but the problem is where do I get the hydrogen from. One option is to make it myself, but I wonder how easy or practical this is, and what are the costs.

Thanks for the answers so far...

I know that in principal making hydorgen is easy -- I did that in my highschool science class.

What I want to know is: How easy and practical is it to make enough hydrogen to power a vehicle to go to work every day?

Consider that to be practical, a system would need to be able to collect and store presurized hydrogen so that I can fill my vehicle's tank with it.

Answer 1

Add a little salt or acid to water, run a DC current through the water and you get Hydrogen and Oxygen being made at the electrodes. If you keep it away from oxygen, hydrigen is not explosive. Both gases can be stored in heavy glass containers. I don't think you can make enough to run a hydrogen powered vehicle.

Voice of Insanity: fuel cells make water and electricity from hydrogen and oxygen! They don't make hydrogen!

Answer 2

Don't try it with salt. All kinds of poisenous chemicals are produced if you do that.
Don't these bikes come with a device for producing hydrogen? Call the company who sells them. They can tell you.
Fuel cells can be used to produce hydrogen so since the bike already contains a fuel cell maybe you can fill in water, plug the bike into an outlet and it will fill it's own tank.
If you try to make hydrogen with a self build device that could get dangerous. You might get a highly explosive gas instead of pure hydrogen or the hydrogen is not pure enough to work and damages the fuel cell of the bike. In the worst case you get a big explosion and kill yourself.

Answer 3

It is not practical.

You can make hydrogen at home by electrolysis of water.
You will encounter the following problems
1. The hydrogen should be compressed to be stored in a cylinder. It needs hi pressure compressor.
2. Hydrogen is highly explosive gas. It is a safety hazard at home.
3. You will need high power source to electrolyze water. Or you should have wind generator etc..
You see, you will invite more problems by trying to fill your bike by home made hydrogen.
Instead, just buy it from outside and enjoy a good ride...........

Happy riding on your new bike............

Answer 4

The primary route for the commercial production of hydrogen is by steam reforming of methane. This is a highly endothermic reaction so it requires a significant input of energy in the from of fuel (usually also natural gas). Other production processes such as electrolysis cannot compete economically and are not widely used on a commercial scale. Because of this, you would be better off purchasing your hydrogen fuel.

Answer 5

All you need to do is run a current through a wire. It is explosive and there's no way for you to collect it and pressurize it. Keep in mind that hydrogen diffuses even through thick steel tanks. Right now if you fill a hydrogen vehicle and don't drive it, it leaks to empty in a week.

ps -- it has to be a dc current

Answer 6

It requires energy. Why not power your vehicle with the energy you would use to make hydrogen?

What you propose is to use energy to make hydrogen then burn the hydrogen to get the same energy back. Of course you would not net as much energy due to inevitable inefficiencies in the processes.

Answer 7

Well, there are two methods. There is using expensive chemicals, like hydrochloric acid and aluminum, which is rather impure and crappy. Then, there is electrolysis, which separates water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen. Google it...

Answer 8

to get pure hyhrogen is very difficult as it requires high heat of combustion