Hydrogen vehicle

From ArticleWorld

The Hydrogen vehicle is an automobile that uses hydrogen as the source of power aimed towards locomotion. This can be done in two ways:

• Regular combustion
• Fuel cell conversion

Fuel cell

It is a known fact among specialists that the fuel cell is a very reliable and efficient solution for any electric device. Prototypes of Hydrogen vehicles have been built even since the sixties by Roger E. Billings but three problems appeared with them along history:

• Hydrogen’s density – Hydrogen as a substance has very low density. This immediately impacts the amount of energy that can be stored, no matter how you store the hydrogen. With this in mind the result is that such an automobile will have a smaller range than other types available.
• Cost – It is expensive to produce such a fuel cell. Specialists have been trying for years to produce one such device that would be inexpensive. Another problem that also needs to be assessed is the fact that these cells will also need to be strong enough to resist to the shocks it can be hit by on the road. The use of rare substances, like platinum, for catalysts also ads to the price. A breakthrough has been done through the invention of a nickel-tin catalyst that reduces the price of a Hydrogen fuel cell.
• Chemistry – Hydrogen is not an energy source but can be used as a carrier. This means that fossil fuels still need to be used and because of it several environmentalists are against the Hydrogen fuel cell to be used.

Combustion

The Hydrogen internal combustion based vehicle is simply a modified version of a regular gasoline internal combustion engine vehicle. Hydrogen is burnt directly and no need for other fossil fuels is a fact. The biggest problem that appears with the model stands in energy storing capabilities. At the current state, a tank of hydrogen would only help the automobile to run for some kilometers, making it very hard to refill. This is the main reason behind the fact that most car companies are investing in Hydrogen fuel cells instead of hydrogen internal combustion systems. Specialists do consider the method mainly as a combination with normal combustion systems. A car can be modified to run on hydrogen with changes done to its system. Several solutions have been reported to have solved the problems of the hydrogen vehicles without any proper proof being exhibited.