How good is hydrogen as an alternative fuel?

Question

Hydrogen has a few problems. It takes energy to make it. It takes plenty of space to store it. How do you get around these problems to make it a viable option for a motor vehicle?

Can somebody give me an idea of how this stacks up as an alternative vehicle fuel. How large does a tank need to be to get reasonable vehicle range? How does it go for Cost? Environment? etc.

Please supply links so any claims can be verified.

Answer 1

The fact that it takes energy to make hydrogen implies that it's not really a fuel (like wood, coal, oil or nuclear energy) but rather just a way of storing energy, like a battery. In the free state, H2 is a really lousy way of storing energy because it takes up so much room. However, there is a process under development that has a lot of promise: Sodium borohydride is a non-combustible liquid that will release free hydrogen with the aid of a catalyst. The energy density of this liquid is comparable to gasoline, so in one fell swoop the problems of storage and safety disappear. The end products are water (made when the free hydrogen is oxidized to produce power) and borax (which can be used as laundry soap). Take a look at this website for more details:
http://www.millenniumcell.com/fw/main/How_it_Works-31.html
Why don't we see these fuel cells all over the place? Because they're expensive. Gasoline engines are much cheaper.

Answer 2

A_Geologist .... get a grip - water vapour from hydrogen as a fuel is really a trivial effect compared to the trillions of tonnes in the atmosphere. Others overplay the hazards of hydrogen - in fact if there is a leak it tends to disperse straight upwards - and is arguably less dangerous than gasoline vapour which can collect and flow at ground level. The hazards of both fuels are not to be taken lightly though. It is likely to be much more costly than present day gasoline but perhaps we really must alter our ways to protect the environment and cheap liquid fossil fuels are running out. I believe there is a BMW liquid hydrogen car (the hydrogen being burned in a modified engine) with a tank perhaps four to five times normal and occupying most of the trunk (sorry just my recollection, don't have a link). I don't know how aluminium as a generator of hydrogen stacks up on relative costs but aluminium is very energy intensive to produce and one has the waste products which presumably have to be recycled. Tonnages of fuel used are very large and there is no way money is to be made as yet in developing the infrastructure that few people would use. People talk about economies of scale but here there are inherent thermodynamic disadvantages and it will only take off on any scale if it is a case of "needs must".

Edited Comment: While the rest of us "tut tut" about too dangerous and too difficult the Germans will be doing it and making it work.

Answer 3

Well I asked my dad about this so i'm to to sure about a link to him. I also have been looking into the subject. some reasins why I don't like the idea of hydrogen because hydrogen is highly flammable/explosive under most circumstances so if you are in a accident and that tank burst, The explosion is probably lethal.

Another problem ,like you mentioned, is energy. It takes A LOT of energy to " aquire" hydrogen A LOT more to get it to the fueling station to "you have to compress it and cool it into a liquid to get it trough the pipelines.

Yet another little know fact about the hydrogen cells that power the car is that they are EXPENSIVE I think the price for the cell alone is in the $50,000 range.

There are some good things about Hydrogen fuel
like that it is still a new thing that will continue to get more advanced.

A big one it that hydrogen is a fully renewable resouce that we don't have to fear running out of.

And hydrogen is GREEN its only by product is water

So what my view is on H fueling is that right now, I don't see it as the best choice for Alt. fuel. but In the future I defanetly can.

Shoot me an Email if you want to more a little more or get some links.

Answer 4

Yeah, hydrogen would be a great fuel. It burns hot and clean.

Now just answer these two questions:

1) How can you make an internally combustible engine that will not be blown up by such a fuel.

2) How can you find naturally-occurring hydrogen in sufficient quantities to provide a reliable fuel source for all these new engines?

Figure that out and you've got the problem licked.

Answer 5

It's great!

Environment - use renewable sources to make the hydrogen and you have a continuously replaceable fuel.

Cost - it'll be 1/10 to 1/2 the price of gasoline for an equal amount of energy.

Tank size hydrogen only - depends on pressure and what reasonable vehicle range is in your mind - to commute 70 miles a day is reasonable for me so 4.5 gallon equivalent gallons of gas at high pressure 5000-10000psi need a tank about 10" around by 54" long.

Tank size blending hydrogen in with other fuels - scuba tank size tank will increase the mileage by approximately 20%.

Answer 6

The most promising process appears to be combining aluminum alloys with water, which produces hydrogen:

http://www.physorg.com/news98556080.html

This solves the major problem of hydrogen transportation and storage. You'd just have to fill up on aluminum pellets and water. However, the reaction creates quite a bit of excess heat, which may be a problem. At the moment they're just trying to use the processes to make small engines for lawn mowers and such, and if that works they can scale up to cars. It's still several decades away from being a viable transportation technology.

Electric vehicles and hybrids are still far and away the best alternative fuel technologies.

http://www.zapworld.com/ZAPWorld.aspx?id=4560
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/070622/aqf032.html?.v=9
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/070726/aqth082.html?.v=16

Answer 7

Hydrogen is the ANSWER!!!

I study this stuff.

Hydrogen is a very safe fuel. All hydrogen tanks have to be able to take 6 rounds from a pistol and be fully immersed in flame without exploding.

Yes, fuel cells are not practical, but hydrogen internal combustion engines are.

I am converting my car to run on a mixture of gasoline and hydrogen. It's called hy-boosting (that term is copyrighted). When you hy-boost a gasoline car it get's twice the miles per gallon, it eliminates unburned hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide, and it allows you to run any liquid fuel in your engine. You can run ethanol, vegetable oil, gasoline, diesel, propane, landfill gas, natural gas, kerosene, or any other fuel.

Hydrogen can be made from many different chemical reactions that require no energy such as immersing iron in sulphuric acid.

Hydrogen can also be made very purely by electrifying water, splitting it's molecules.

Hydrogen can be made impurely too by using the gas from rotting biomass too for very little money.

Answer 8

NASA uses liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen and it supplies the most energy than any other fuel combination. The hydrogen has such a small atone that it will leak through almost anything. If u use just the air for combustion u will produce large amounts of NO2 or photo chemical smoggy . 10 gallons of liquid hydrogen mixed with air will blow away a entire block.

Answer 9

I will agree with most peoples sentiments regarding using Hydrogen as a fuel source other than Oil, but one thing that is ofen overlooked is the effect of the by-product from Hydrogen, water. Or more correctly Water Vapour.

The larget greenhouse gas that we have, and probably more dangerous in terms of climate change, is, infact, water vapour.

Answer 10

Hydrogen vehicles wouldn't be safe to drive.The way individuals drive with gasoline powered vehicles.Have you been driving a hydrogen powered vehicle and was in a small fender bender.The emergency crew probably would not want to be in the VICINITY FOR FEAR OF AN EXPLOSION,YOU WOULD BE SAVING ON GAS BUT TAKING LIVES.