Hydrogen Car Kits – What You Should Pay Attention To
July 14, 2009 · Leave a Comment
While the usage of the brown gas HHO (split water) as a water additive for gasoline does not exactly fit this category, the incredible popularity that these hydrogen car kits have achieved lately is a proof of how desperately people want to change their lifestyle.
The problem with this hydrogen additive business is the fact that not all the players on the market are… let’s say… of top notch quality.
WHAT IS A FUEL CELL?
In principle, a fuel cell operates like a battery. Unlike a battery, a fuel cell does not run down or require recharging. It will produce energy in the form of electricity and heat as long as fuel is supplied.
A fuel cell consists of two electrodes sandwiched around an electrolyte. Oxygen passes over one electrode and hydrogen over the other, generating electricity, water and heat.
A fuel cell produces electricity.
The fuel cell is similar to a battery. It produces electricity using chemicals. The chemicals are usually very simple, often just hydrogen and oxygen. In this case the hydrogen is the “fuel” that the fuel cell uses to make electricity.
Another very important difference is that fuel cells do not run down like batteries. As long as the fuel and oxygen is supplied to the cell it will keep producing electricty for ever.
The oxygen needed by a fuel cell is usually simply obtained from air.
via hydrogen fuel cells.
Hydrogen is the lightest of the elements with an atomic weight of 1.0. Liquid hydrogen has a density of 0.07 grams per cubic centimeter, whereas water has a density of 1.0 g/cc and gasoline about 0.75 g/cc. These facts give hydrogen both advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is that it stores approximately 2.6 times the energy per unit mass as gasoline, and the disadvantage is that it needs about 4 times the volume for a given amount of energy. A 15 gallon automobile gasoline tank contains 90 pounds of gasoline. The corresponding hydrogen tank would be 60 gallons, but the hydrogen would weigh only 34 pounds.
How much water is used to make hydrogen?
Simply put, electrolysis does not require significant amounts of water. The hydrogen extracted from a gallon of water using a hydrogen generator, or “electrolyzer,” can drive a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle as far as a gasoline vehicle travels today on a gallon of gasoline. (For comparison, when making a gallon of gasoline about 3 gallons of water are used.)
A more detailed explanation follows. Using Proton Energy System’s H6m electrolyzer, you can make 0.38 kilograms of gaseous hydrogen per gallon of water. (An electrolyzer uses electricity to make hydrogen from water.) The Honda FCX Clarity has a combined EPA estimate mileage of 72 miles/kilogram of hydrogen. Therefore, the FCX Clarity will drive about 27 miles on the hydrogen produced from one gallon of water. The average fuel economy for light duty vehicles in the US is 21 miles/gallon of gasoline.
Reference Points:
1 gallon water = 0.38 kg hydrogen > 27 miles in the FCX Clarity
1 liter water = 0.10 kg hydrogen > 12 kilometers in the FCX Clarity
Sources
Proton Energy Systems
Honda Media Newsroom
US Environmental Protection Agency
Hydrogen is the simplest element known to man. Each atom of hydrogen has only one proton. It is also the most plentiful gas in the universe. Stars are made primarily of hydrogen.
The sun is basically a giant ball of hydrogen and helium gases. In the sun’s core, hydrogen atoms combine to form helium atoms. This process—called fusion—gives off radiant energy.
This radiant energy sustains life on earth. It gives us light and makes plants grow. It makes the wind blow and rain fall. It is stored as chemical energy in fossil fuels. Most of the energy we use today came from the sun’s radiant energy.
via Hydrogen – Energy.
Proton Power Systems has developed a hydrogen fuel cell street sweeper that it is now testing in Basle, Switzerland. The municipal street sweeping vehicle was developed in conjunction with the Swiss consortium, hy.muve.
The 20kw fuel cell provides the street sweeping vehicle with a top speed of 24 mph. The fuel cell vehicle can hold enough hydrogen at 5,000 psi before refueling 7 hours later. Refueling the vehicle takes less than 10 minutes.
The modification involved removal of the diesel engine and power train and replacing it with the fuel cell system and hybrid system based on lithium ion batteries. The hydraulic system was also replaced by electric drives.
A fuel cell is an electrochemical conversion device. It produces electricity from fuel (on the anode side) and an oxidant (on the cathode side), which react in the presence of an electrolyte. The reactants flow into the cell, and the reaction products flow out of it, while the electrolyte remains within it. Fuel cells can operate virtually continuously as long as the necessary flows are maintained.
The hydrogen economy is a proposal for the distribution of energy by using hydrogen. Hydrogen (H2) gives off energy when it is combined with oxygen, but the hydrogen itself has to first be produced, which requires more energy than is released when it is used as a fuel. To use hydrogen as a fuel, it first has to be generated by electrolysis of water or another method. A reduction in carbon dioxide emission would only be achieved if the energy used to split the water is obtained from non carbon-based sources.
Some futurists promote hydrogen as potential fuel for motive power (including cars, boats and airplanes), the energy needs of buildings and portable electronics. They believe a hydrogen economy could greatly reduce the emission of carbon dioxide and help reduce emissions implicated in global warming. Countries without oil, but with renewable energy resources, could use a combination of renewable energy and hydrogen instead of fuels derived from petroleum, which are becoming scarcer, to achieve energy independence.
