Hydrogen fuel cars?

Question

If the only emission of hydrogen fuel cars is water... wouldn't that be kind of dangerous in the winter weather states? Even with ice melt/calcium chloride it only works until the temprature doesn't drop below a certain temprature... and how about in standing still traffic? The ice will build up on the road way?

The Water Vapor/Steam condenses in the tail pipe and changes into a liquid....

Answer 1

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You are forgetting that burning conventional hydrocarbons (gasoline) also produces water. In fact, gasoline is less efficient than hydrogen, so there will be less water emitted by hydrogen vehicles.
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However, here's what's missing from the public discussion of hydrogen fuel-cell cars: hydrogen (in the form available to us) is not a fuel. It is an energy carrier.
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Hydrogen is a battery. Water + electricity = hydrogen. Then, in the fuel cell, Hydrogen makes water and electricity again. This is a reversible chemical process, exactly how a battery works! All the energy comes from electricity. The hydrogen 'carries' it.
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A fuel-cell car is an electric car (INCLUDING BATTERIES, needed for acceleration), with a fuel cell and hydrogen tank added on - so it will always be more expensive, and heavier, than a plain electric car. Furthermore, new battery research is now giving us electric vehicle batteries that can be charged in 10 minutes, with a 250,000 mile lifespan, and a range up to 350 miles (see http://zapworld.com/ZAPWorld.aspx?id=4560 and http://www.phoenixmotorcars.com ) The Phoenix sells for $45,000, for hand-built cars - factory production will cut this price considerably.
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Check out that link above, and tell me why that car needs a tank of hydrogen? Fuel cells are less than 50% efficient, while battery storage is close to 90% efficient. Li-ion batteries are not an environmental hazard. (Lithium in spent batteries is in harmless salt form.)
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The whole hydrogen idea has been popularized by the oil interests - so they'll still have something to sell to us when we're driving electric cars.
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Answer 2

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 3

As said above the water is vapour, gaseous. But the hydrogen engine is also more efficient, not idling when stopped like a hydrocarbon engine which has to keep going in order to consume waste by products and continue fuel intake. The gasoline engine is putting out more water while it is stopped than a hydrogen engine.
There are currently some fleet vehicles (even buses) which run on hydrogen. George Bush and his cronies aren't happy, it's less money in their pockets.

Answer 4

It's wator vapor that they produce, basically steam. Hot air rises. So it's not like you'll have water dripping all over the roadways.

As far as the electric car debate the one person mentioned. That person failed to mention the range of the car (only about 30-40 miles). That's why none of the car companies are going to them. Also to create those batteries you are talking about a lot of bio hazard materials being produced that when they go out after 100-200,000 miles or so will cost as much to replace as basically almost a new car. Also those batteries would make your car way a couple of tons. Just check out the weights of some of the current electric cars as proof. Even one that looks like a mini clown car ways almost two tons. If fuel cells can be devoloped cheaply you eliminate the need for those large batteries. Fuel cells already allow a range of about 300 miles on a tank of hydrogen fuel. Your car would be a lot lighter than an electric car and your take off ability could possibly compare with that of a Corvette. GM used electric hub motors on a Chevy S-10 and it beat out a Chevy Corvette on acceleration from 0-60mph. Sind the motors would be right at the wheels you'd have 4 wheel drive and computerized stabilitrak would be made easy. And with it being all electric controlled it allows the possibility like never before to move controls around. In fact the age of the left side or right side steering wheel may one day be gone. GM came up with a fuel cell vehicle where the steering wheel can be slid over to the left or right side. And since the engine works are underneath the car you could have a trunk in the front and back of the car.

With an electric car who seriously wants to wait 10 minutes every 30-40 miles to recharge their car. Could you imagine a long road trip doing that?

Although car companies like Chrysler and GM are working on what are called plug in cars such as the GM Volt which are both electric and gas powered. The car would totally run on electric power for about 30-40 miles, enough to get most people to and from work. Then when the batteries start getting low a gas motor kicks in to recharge the batteries so you don't get stranded somewhere. Which would allow you to be able to travel about 300 miles if you wanted.

Answer 5

It really doesnt matter Hydrogen fuel cars are the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow that Auto Makers have put out there that may never be viable so they dont have to produce vehcles with the technology we have now like Plug in Hybrids

To the person who said the range on EV cars is 30 miles you are wrong. The newset batteries have them going 300 miles a charge.

Answer 6

Wow, thanks for caring about all of us northern living people.

The problem isn't going to be as severe as you envision. In loose round numbers a gallon of gas has 121000Btus stored energy and 2lbs of hydrogen has the same number of Btus, when we burn these to release the energy we obtain approximately 9lbs of water per gallon of gasoline and 18lbs of water from the hydrogen. The 18lbs produced from hydrogen though will come from the surface of the planet and the water from the gasoline comes from ancient underground reserves. The net increase of hydrogen burning is zero but the net increase from gas is 9lbs. Where's the flooding?

Have a great day!

Answer 7

The company i represent has a patent on a hydrogen fuel cell that increases milieage by 50-100% [e-mail] for the details

Answer 8

Hydrogen is not a viable solution for many different reasons, H2O production not being part of them. Main reason is delivery system/infrastructure. You will not see an affordable hydrogen vehicle from the major manufacturers for at least 30 years. Yes, we are waaaaay behind on this one.

Answer 9

Why not put the water back into the (water-fuel) tank to re-separate it via hydrogen-generator?

Answer 10

Actually no. They are being tested right now in cold weather states and have had no problems at all so far!!!