Turning Water Into Hydrogen To Run Your Car
A Non-Technical Introduction
Hydrogen can be used as fuel. Of that, there is no doubt. Planes, trains, automobiles, space shuttles, you name it; they can all be powered by hydrogen. When hydrogen burns it produces nothing more than water vapor. And since the hydrogen atom is virtually ubiquitous, many have declared we are on the brink of the “Hydrogen Age” when it comes to clean energy. It is just a matter of technology finding a way to make the use of hydrogen-for-energy economically viable.
My concern is limited to hydrogen powered automobiles. The promise has been cars with tanks of hydrogen that can be swapped out at filling stations, similar to the way we can now swap out tanks of propane for our gas grills. We just pull up, disconnect and drop off empty tanks, hook up full tanks and drive off. The two primary obstacles to this scenario are as follows.
1) Problems with on-board storage.
If you want reasonable mileage between refueling, and if you want the tanks to be reasonably small and unobtrusive, the hydrogen would have to be highly compressed. For obvious safety reasons, most balk at the idea of having tanks of compressed hydrogen fuel on-board. It creates images of a compact car going up like a tanker truck in case of an accident.
Backing off on the compression in the tanks is an option, but it creates an unattractive scenario. The tanks would be far bigger and more difficult to store on-board and exchange. One prototype I examined had a compartment taking up most of the underside of the car for storing large cylinders of hydrogen. Even then the mileage between refueling was barely acceptable. But even the storage problem is solved there is number two.
2) It takes too much energy to produce hydrogen.
It takes energy to make energy. To produce gasoline, oil must be pumped from the ground, pipelined, transported, pumped, refined, pumped, pipelined, transported, stored, pumped again, etc., etc., etc.. All this processing has costs in terms of money and pollution.
As it turns out, hydrogen is even worse than oil. Though hydrogen may burn clean in a vehicle, the energy it takes to produce usable hydrogen from water is enormous. This translates to high cost in terms of money and pollution. When all this is factored in, on-board hydrogen tanks for automobiles are not a clean or cheap energy source.
There are well-funded, massive projects rolling along. Automobile prototypes abound and optimistic reports continue to come out claiming these vehicles will be hitting the streets before long. However, many former supporters of this technology are jumping ship and more and more doubters are expressing their opinions; claiming these problems insurmountable and declaring the “Hydrogen Age” over before it begins.
Cars powered by on-board tanks of hydrogen have indeed hit a wall. Fuel cells are heavily hyped and supported but do not solve the problems (not to mention they are VERY expensive). I suppose a breakthrough is possible. But there is nothing on the horizon that would lead anyone to that conclusion.
What I described above is the domain of mainstream research by big auto and big energy companies into hydrogen as automobile fuel. If you dig a little deeper you soon find alternative technologies out there that also utilize hydrogen as automobile fuel. These technologies are not mainstream but rather the domain of small, independent research and development companies and, in some cases, independent inventors.
The thing that most of these alternative technologies have in common is that the hydrogen as automobile fuel is generated as needed, or what many call “on-demand”. This is accomplished with a device of some sort that produces hydrogen as it is used eliminating the need for tanks of hydrogen. The fuel for producing the hydrogen is water, good ol’ H2O. The energy source for creating usable hydrogen from water is the electricity produced by the automobile’s electrical system.
You may have already noticed that this takes care of the two main problems of the mainstream research.
First of all, with hydrogen on-demand there are no tanks of hydrogen. The only addition to a vehicle is a system that creates the hydrogen fuel from water and delivers it to the engine intake system.
Second of all, the energy to make energy is very, very cheap and clean. It is a system that uses water, which is cheap and plentiful, and electricity, which is produced by the automobiles electrical system. Hydrogen burns totally clean by combining with oxygen to produce water as the only emission.
IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING.
The on-demand technologies fall into two categories:
1.Water-as-fuel only. The only thing you put in the fuel tank is water and the vehicle runs on 100% hydrogen from that water..
2.Water-as-fuel-hybrid. The vehicle still uses gasoline (or Diesel fuel) which is combined with the hydrogen to produce better operation and significant increase in mileage. The vehicle does not run on 100% hydrogen, but a gasoline/hydrogen mixture.
Right now, for practical reasons, I am a big fan of #2, water-as-fuel-hybrid.
But first, I need to say a few things about water-as-fuel-only. As I write this, I do not know of any water-as-fuel-only systems that can consistently live up to their proponents’ claims. Plans for do-your-selfers and, more recently, installation kits are available. But everyone I have spoken to that has attempted this has expressed significant disappointment in one or more aspects of the system. Work on this technology is fast and furious and things could change quickly. But for now, unless you are an technophile or inventor, my advice is to stay clear of any systems claiming to use water-as-fuel-only. Unfortunately, the excessive claims of water-as-fuel-only proponents has done harm to the reputation of this technology. There are websites selling this technology. You can check it out yourself, but I have been told that the people behind this offer little or no support.
If you truly want to be happy with this technology, I recommend being a little less greedy and go for the water-as-fuel-hybrid. The technology is proven. There are thousands of happy people taking advantage of the fuel savings. Typical mileage increase is greater than 30%; 50% is not uncommon, and a few vehicles have gotten more than 70%. Engines run better with increased power. The gasoline burns more completely, helping mileage and reducing emissions. Carbon deposits are removed.