water powered car, does it use fossil fuels?

Question

I have being hearing of a water powered car that uses electrolosis to to form hydrogen which is then used to power the car.

However to get the electricity in the first place surely fossil fuels must be used to produce it. (or perhaps not i don't know) If so what is the purpose of a water powered car?

Answer 1

Most all of the auto companies are developing hydrogen cars that some might consider as a water powered car.

Electrolosis can be used to form hydrogen wich can then be used to power a car either by being combusted or by being used in a fuel cell. The fuel cells are more energy efficient than combusting it in a standard type of cylinder engine. However, unless the electricity that is used to break the water into oxygen and hydrogen is created from solar power you are going to be expending more energy than you create.

Much of the hydrogen that is looking to be used to fuel hydrogen cars already comes off of chemical processes as a by-product to form chemicals that we use. Dupont I believe is already working with GM to use hydrogen fuel cells to power some of their plants. They collect hydrogen from their chemical processes then feed that to the fuel cell generators which generate electricity to power their plants. Hydrogen is even produced as a byproduct when they produce our gasoline.

Fuel cells combine hydrogen with water and thereby create electricity which would be used to power hub motors (motors directly on the wheels) to power the car. The direct power of the hub motors would make energy conservation much more efficient and things such as stabilitrack could be done much more easily. Also you can get more torque with hub motors. GM implemented them on the rear wheels of a Chevy S-10 and it was able to out-perform a Chevy Corvette as far as take off acceleration from 0-60.

The hydrogen can also be produce biologically. Some algae produce hydrogen and the hydrogen could be collected and stored from large vats of that algae.

What I think would be the best alternative is if American houses could be implemented with solar panels. The solar panels could be used to convert water into oxygen and hydrogen through electrolosis. The hydrogen collected could be used to fuel your car and it also could be used by a fuel cell that could power your house. The extra electricity could be sold to the power utility companies. What is nice about the idea of using hydrogen in combination with electrolysis and solar power is that no batteries have to be used to store the electricity. Your stored power is the hydrogen itself. So there are no harmful chemicals to eventually throw away. If fuel cell technology one day becomes cheap enough, this could possibly become a reality.

Answer 2

It does not make much sense to use electricity to electrolyze water and then use the hydrogen. How is the hydrogen used?
In a fuel cell to produce electricity all over again?

It is much simpler to use the electricity directly in a motor.

You are right in that fossil fuel is the ultimate driving force and that the problem is just geographically shifted.

Unless the car is driven by a primary cell that does not derive the raw material from a fossil fuel.

Answer 3

Equivilant Exchange. To get something in the first place, something must be sacrificed.

Electrolosis is a very thoughtful method, but with the current technology that we possess, it simply costs too much energy to use the technology. Overall, hydrogen powered cars are extremely resourceful, even propane.

In fact, at the place where I work at we use propane powered forklifts here as compared to the fossil fueled diesel forklifts.

Answer 4

In theory it could work, and even be a closed loop system. Use electrolysis to break water down into it's component parts. Pump the oxygen and hydrogen into a fuel cell to generate electricity. Take the result which is water and star the whole thing over again.

The problem is in the conversion. It takes a lot more energy to break down water than you get back by powering a fuel cell, which by the way is the most efficient use.

Any time you convert potential energy into kinetic energy there is converson loss.

Answer 5

I was reading the answers and wondering why Al Gore needs to be dragged int this. Experiments concerning the production of hydrogen by electrolytic decomposition of water in a sodium hydroxide melt are frequently described. The electrolytic cell and the two electrodes are made from Al2O3 and nickel. The working temperature of the electrolysis ranged between 320 and 400 C. The data necessary for an analysis of economic efficiency such as the current density and overall cell voltage, current efficiency, water vapor surplus and corrosion resistance of the electrodes were tested and determined. Starting from these investigations an analysis of economic efficiency and an initial assessment of the overall efficiency were carried out on the basis of electrolytic parameters regarded as achievable. If the high temperature reactor (HTR) is taken as the primary energy source, an overall efficiency of 38-39% is obtained. Not bad, huh ???
Perhaps think first and fire later would be good guideline. Why everybody assumes electrolysis ?

Answer 6

There is no such thing as a water powered car. Just in case you didn't understand: THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A WATER POWERED CAR.

Hydrogen powered cars exist, at least as prototypes, but the hydrogen must be produced from somewhere, and most likely it is made from hydrocarbons, not from water (the cost of hydrogen produced by steam/methane reforming is much lower than the cost of hydrogen produced by electrolysis).

There have also been steam powered cars in the past, but in these, the water is simply a working fluid. The energy comes from burning a hydrocarbon fuel (kerosene).

Once again, in case you missed it:

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A WATER POWERED CAR. And I wish people would stop spreading this lie.

If you disagree. please provide me with proof. not rumors, not something you heard from a friend of a friend of someone who said something, real proof, such as a patent or a documented demonstration vehicle.

Answer 7

People working on this don't understand the basic law of nature being the law of conservation of energy. I award their motive, just pity their intelligence.

You can run a car on water, but it takes electricity to split the H20 which comes from burning coal or natural gas. The only way this works is if you make the electricity with solar, or wind power. But with the cost of these right now, you would save a ton of money to buy a hybrid, E85 car, or a diesel VW and use BioDiesel if you want to reduce your dependence on foreign oil and global warming footprint.

Answer 8

Water powered cars a fraud. People who do things like use one regular car battery to make a small amount of hydrogen from water and then show how it can run the engine for 1 or 2 seconds, and then ask for money to develop the idea, are frauds. Either that or they are total idiots.

Answer 9

You get a, say, 3000 gallon tanker, park it on top of a hill and fill it with water. Then release the brake and let the water really drive you.

You still need the truck battery to power the lighter. To light up a cigar, of course.

Any other "water drive" only exists in Goracleland.

Answer 10

What I am working on is a BS powered car. This could be powered with Algore's speeches and his fertilizer-filled alleged movie "An Inconvenient Fraud". BS is something we will NEVER run out of. Might as well find a good way to make constructive use of it.

This car could be powered by TV commercials and real estate documents as well. In BS hubs like national and state capitols, BS would be either a few cents for a gallon or free. THink of what this would do for our economy!