Hydrogen Power Blog

Nick Tart


Whenever you hear a conversation or read an article about hydrogen fuel cells, you tend not to listen because you do not want your mind to be boggled. But the truth is, hydrogen fuel cells are a lot simpler than most other technology.

 

Simply put, a fuel cell is a device that generates electricity through chemical reactions. In a hydrogen fuel cell, the primary reactant is, obviously, hydrogen. As hydrogen is being pumped into the fuel cells, an electrode strips the atom of its electrons and the hydrogen becomes ionized. The stripped electrons then create an electrical current. At the same time, oxygen filters into the fuel cell. Combining with the hydrogen, the two create a chemical reaction which in turn forms water.

 

The greatest appeal of hydrogen fuel cells i that they generate electricity while causing esentially no pollution. So why not generate all electricity through hydrogen fuel cells? There are two main reasons.

 



One fuel cell does not generate very much electricity. In order for fuel cells to be useful there must be several of them working together to generate a significant amount of energy. Typically hydrogen fuel cells are assembled into a stack.

Fuel cells are relatively expensive. Compared to other sources of producing energy, fuel cells are financially impractical. Costing about $1000 per kilowatt of electric power output, not many businesses can justify using this technology.



 

However, scientists are continually working on ways to improve the efficiencies and lessen the costs associated with hydrogen fuel cells. If they are successful, hydrogen fuel cell technology will undoubtedly be the primary energy source throughout the world!

John DeLellis


Business executives in other major oil and automobile companies scrambled to create crash programs to drastically reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and fit into the plan.  The plan was to accelerate breakthroughs in how homes and businesses used energy, and how automobiles were powered. Within the next few weeks there will be some companies offering business opportunities in this new, exciting and profitable field of hydrogen conversion kits for cars and trucks.

Fuel cells are very high efficiencies in converting chemical energy to electrical energy since they not constrained by the maximum Carnot cycle efficiency as combustion engines are.  Hydrogen cars use a chemical reaction rather than a burning process for motive power Conventional cars burn fossil fuel and Hybrid Cars use smaller amounts of the same fuel to charge their batteries.  Using hydrogen as a supplemental fuel like use in hydrogen for cars concept is a safe and sound and efficient alternative that’s offered right now.  General Motors will also continue to invest in hydrogen fuel cell technology, which — when commercially deployed — will reduce automobile emissions to non-polluting water vapor.

Hydrogen cars do however; have the potential to be better cars than Hybrid Cars in several ways so we need to compare their known characteristics.  Hydrogen fuel burns both hotter and faster than fossil based fuel and is therefore much more efficient.  Hydrogen car fuel is not just a subject for exploring new energy horizons it opens up new possibilities in our mode of travel.  Hydrogen fuel generates lower engine operating temperature and there is no emission of hazardous fumes by its use.  Hydrogen fuel cells attract more attention because hydrogen is supposed to be pollution free.  Hydrogen fuel cell cars, water power cars, whatever you call them it all comes down to the same thing and that’s cheap clean fuel.

Hydrogen for cars is not a new concept, in fact it has been around for a long time, but due to pressure from the big oil companies it has been suppressed and kept out of the public eye.  The hydrogen for cars is later used by the fuel cell to transform its chemical energy into electric and mechanic energy to drive the car.  In the past people have been reluctant to use hydrogen technology, but now because of the unstable oil and gasoline prices and the poor state of the economy it seems that everyone is looking for alternative energy and cheaper fuels, and hydrogen for cars is gaining in popularity as a way to cut the high cost of motoring.