Alternative Car Fuels Blog » Hydrogen

What are Fuel Cells, and What Can They Do for Environmentally Friendly Motoring?

Jonathan — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 16:13:11 +0000

Fuel cells are different than batteries, because instead of storing energy they are used as electrochemical conversion devices. The chemicals used for conversion by fuel cells are hydrogen and oxygen which are then turned into water and in this process electricity is produced. This electrical energy is then used to power a car. As long as the chemicals constantly are added and flow into the system, the fuel cell never dies and that is just one way that they contribute to environmentally friendly motoring.

Some types of fuel cells are more efficient than others, and fortunately one of the most promising kinds to be used in the future for cars, is one of the most efficient. The hydrogen fuel cell works at about 50% efficiency and that means that half of the hydrogen added will be converted to electrical energy. The other half is released as heat and neither of those products damages the environment. Cars that will use hydrogen fuel cells in the future will have no negative impact on the environment and therefore can be driven without feeling guilty.

Cars that use fuel cells also do not deplete any of our limited resources, such as oil. There is plenty of hydrogen available to make fuel with, but the process to extract hydrogen is not yet refined enough that it will be a low cost alternative. However, hydrogen is sustainable and available and that saves our environment from future drilling to find more oil. Hydrogen also burns cleanly and cars that use fuel cells have zero emissions, therefore releasing no pollutants.

More on Hydrogen cars in a post we did about a year ago!

Our Header Image — The Hydrogen Mini

Jonathan — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 20:45:42 +0000

I’ve gotten quite a few e-mails asking me about what kind of alt fuel the mini in our header image is packing….

Well, it’s a Hydrogen Mini using BMW’s CleanEnergy technology!

I wouldn’t mind driving one of these…

Hydrogen Cars – What Are They?

Jonathan — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 13:30:19 +0000

Unlike many of the hybrid and green cars at present on the market, hydrogen cars offer the comfort of zero emanation technology, where the merely derivative from the cars is water vapor. Contemporary fossil-fuel flaming vehicles give out all sorts of pollutants such as, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, ozone, nitrous oxide, and microscopic particulate material. Hybrids and other green cars deal with these issues to a great degree but only hydrogen cars seize the guarantee of zero emission of pollutants. Subsequently, a more answerable situation is that dual-fuel automotive systems will be urbanized that can run moreover on gasoline or hydrogen as the hydrogen transportation is being urbanized. The translation from gasoline-powered interior burning engines to hydrogen powered burning engines is arranged upon by most scientists and engineers to be a predominantly easy changeover and would acquire time for hydrogen fuel cell cars to be completely modified. Hydrogen cars are not inaccessible to those that blaze the fuel in interior burning engines. There are extra hydrogen fuel cell cars being built at present than any other type.

A good number of hydrogen vehicles dart on energy cells, wherever hydrogen atoms are divide and re-combined with oxygen, creating power to scurry the cruise and not to bring up environmentally-harmless water. The new hydrogen vehicles apply normal, run-of-the-mill inside burning engines, by means of a type of liquid hydrogen. Hydrogen fuel cells toil by recombining and splitting atoms within the cell’s membranes and casings allowing them to link and liberated on a molecular level that creates energy. The hydrogen fuel cell cars can be prepared by not-so-green sources, such as coal smoldering, the flaming of ordinary gas, or as a microbial throw away produce of disintegration.

Nowadays, chief car manufacturers are experimenting with the hydrogen internal incineration engine, whereas some other car manufacturers are focusing on fuel cells. A few companies are researching both methods. A good number of the hydrogen-powered vehicles are accessible currently in Japan and Europe.

(in the pic – a hydrogen-powered bmw 7-series, source: bmw blog)