Are hydrogen cars dangerous?

Question

Because hydrogen is very flamable. And if there not then why don't they have cars running on it? Please give me some details!

Than what are we going to do? Are fuel supply is running out and causing GLOBAL WARMING!

Answer 1

Sure, they can be dangerous, but so can gasoline cars. If you think about it, how comfortable are you sitting on a plastic tank full of a bunch of gasoline that's going to sit under your car if you get in an accident and crack it? But as other have said, it's different.

If you ever get an opportunity to see a hydrogen tank, take it, it will make you feel better. They are the same or similar to CNG tanks, and are certified to take all sorts of abuse - they dump them off buildings, shoot them with machine guns, toss them into fires, etc - they are very thoroughly tested.

I've driven them, and had my children in them. Although there is a public opinion problem looming around safety, the fact that you can't get them right now is largely due to the other factors listed above - Cost (for fuel cells, in particular), and lack of fueling stations/methods. Also, about 95% of the H2 we use in the US comes from natural gas, which just moves your carbon problem upstream - this is the only way they claim it's economical here. The renewable/clean versions are too inefficient so far. There's hope for nuclear as a way of producing H2 efficiently, but that of course comes with it's own arguments...

Answer 2

A hydrogen tank on a car isn't much more dangerous than a fuel tank on a car. There are different ups and downs for explosions.

When a liquid fuel tank ruptures the gasoline spills and stays on the ground. It is a present threat to any ignition sources near the ground.

When a gaseous fuel tank ruptures, the fuel blows away. It is dangerous for about 2 minutes after the rupture. Simply creating a hole in the tank won't cause an explosion either. There has to be both oxygen and hydrogen in the tank for an explosion. The tank has to rupture long enough for the air to mix before finding a spark. Just hope the car crash isn't into a building. Then the ruptured fuel tank will spill the hydrogen into a contained space. That is much more dangerous.

Hydrogen is produce from two sources: 1) oil or natural gas products 2) water. Oil has a much more dense concentration of hydrogen gas and is the preferred medium to take the gas from.

I believe water makes up about 10 or 20 percent of world production, but don't have source to back that up.

A better direction to look at in butanol as a fuel source. It is a better fuel source than gasoline or ethanol. It doesn't evaporate as quickly as gasoline mixes. It is far less corrosive than ethanol and in some cases gasoline. And it has only slightly less energy than normal gasoline. It would be a straight replacement. There are two different efforts to build pilot plants for producing butanol from agricultural waste currently that I know of. Biodesiel beats it, but desiel engines aren't popular.

Answer 3

Yes, hydrogen could be very dangerous. The PSI (air pressure) that the hydrogen is put under is very high and hydrogen is very combustible. Just watch footage of the Hindenburgh if you want to learn about the flamability of hydrogen. However, scientist are looking at ways to chemically combine it with metals and other substances so it can be stored easier and isn't so combustible. And even if hydrogen is stored in a gaseous form, if the tank is built right it could possibly be more safe than gas. It's hard to say how safe it will be until a bunch of hydrogen cars are out on the road or a lot more crash testing is done on them. And with as expensive as hydrogen cars are to build, I don't think you want to start crash testing them a bunch.

If the hydrogen is produced on demand say from water, it could be very very safe. I mean water is not combustible at all.

Answer 4

Hydrogen cars do emit either liquid or vapor water, but as apeweek pointed out, it's no worse than the combustion of gasoline - if you look while you're sitting at a stoplight, you can watch it drip from the tailpipe in front of you. Pure battery vehicle are still quite range limited - I hope we'll see lots of plug-in hybrids until batteries really get good enough to support a reasonable 200mi-ish range on a charge and recharge times get better. Other things need some improvement too, but I've no doubt the battery technology will eventually get there. Whether or not we'll ever get a 200 mi range with a 5 minute charge is debatable though :) I hope so! I'm holding out for a Escape Plug-in hybrid! I do hope they hurry though...

Answer 5

Hydrogen cars are safe and getting safer everyday. The safety of any of the alternative fuels is irrelevant as to why we don't have cars running on it now. The simplest explanation for why we don't see hydrogen cars is no one has entered the market with a competitively priced alternative fuel that people want to buy. I will be converting a couple of cars this year to run on hydrogen and produce the fuel to run these cars as well. No doubt these conversions will cause me some fits like the small mower did but other people have done it and Roy McAlister author of 'The Solar Hydrogen Civilization' has been converting cars for 40+ years.

Fossil fuels: "Just say NO" convert to 'Green Hydrogen'

Answer 6

No, hydrogen is far less dangerous then gasoline. The energy content of a storage container of hydrogen is only a fraction of that of a tank of gasoline. I was working on hydrogen cars many years ago and we did everything from trying to rupture the storage tank by brute force to shooting rifle rounds at it. We were successful in all cases but failed to produce spectacular explosions predicted by doomsayers. The problem was actually quite interesting. Hydgogen flame is invisiblee in air (dring the day) and very hot, thus you can get burned easily as you do not see the flame. Most efficient storage means use metal hydride technology ane are *exceedingly* safe. Hydrogen forms compounts called hydrides and thus is safely stored. Pressurized storage of hydrogen is inefficient. The problem we observed with hydrogen cars was the low energy content, thus you can have any two of the following, but never all three: fast, cheap, far.
There is no viable hydrogen distribution system in the US. Natural gas (octane rating of 104) is a far better alternative.

Answer 7

Hydrogen is dangerous! But mostly because lots of people believe these cars will be on the road soon to solve our oil addiction. The danger here is because this very likely will never happen, because hydrogen is not an energy source, it is an energy carrier.

You still have to burn oil, coal, and natural gas to get the electricity to make hydrogen.

They've been telling us for 15 years that hydrogen cars are 10 to 15 years away. They still are and will always be.

Answer 8

Hydrogen cars are different, not necessarily more or less dangerous!

Some characteristics of hydrogen make it safer than gasoline, for example -
* hydrogen diffuses quickly, it won't pool under a vehicle
* hydrogen is non-toxic
But other make it riskier -
* It's generally used in vehicles now as a compressed gas, adding "projectiles" to the risks
* You can't smell it if it's leaking, and so far there aren't additives that can be used in fuel cell applications

The reasons you can't buy one are many, but fall into reliability of technologies (stage of development), cost, and infrastructure (no place to fill it).

Answer 9

Hydrogen cars can be dangerous but if you sit down and think about the fact that our current cars are strapped with a giant tank of very flammable gasoline then hydrogen isnt too bad an idea. its really just how its all contained and transported. if u get into an accident with any car there is always high risk for an explosion. but after so long we have gotten used to the idea so it doesnt affect us, until we get in an accident then-boom. like driving around with a bomb. same idea would go with a hydrogen car. it can be just as dangerous.

Answer 10

For an excellent comparison of the fire danger from a hydrogen powered vehicle with that of a gasoline powered vehicle, check out this site:
http://evworld.com/article.cfm?storyid=482
Give me H, baby! Also, although the Hindenberg accident gave H a bad name, an investigation has found that most of the deaths were caused by a) gravity or b) burning oil and diesel from the thrust engines.
http://www.abc.net.au/science/k2/moments/s1052864.htm
In all likelihood, no deaths resulted from the hydrogen fire. All the flames you see in the films are of the dirigible's powdered aluminum-coated skin burning, not the H. Powdered Aluminum = rocket fuel. Hydrogen burns verry quickly and the flames are difficult to see. Notice how much brighter the gasoline fire in the pictures are then the hydrogen flames.