ForumsWEPRShould we start making all hydrogen cars

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tyr36
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tyr36
69 posts
Nomad

If we make pure hydrogen cars it would be great.. we would have hydrogen pumps ,but it would be a ton for several gallons of it.. If they made some kinda engine that transformed the waste of the hydrogen (water) and then got the hydrgen out of that you could get like 500 miles to the gallon.. Should this be a smart move?

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chiliad_nodi
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chiliad_nodi
638 posts
Peasant

Hydrogen is flammable, highly flammable. Let the cars absorb it from the air. Otherwise, good idea. They are working on it and will be done by 2011 or maybe a little later. I always loved fuel cell cars. I will hopefully get one as my first car.

Arax_Nisanu
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Arax_Nisanu
1,305 posts
Nomad

2 words... KA-BOOOM

As chiliad_nodi stated, hydrogen is highly flammable. Just take a look at what happened to the mighty Hindenburg flight. One small spark and it's lights out.

Ricador
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Ricador
3,722 posts
Shepherd

Duh of course we should because the stupid oil companies are evil...EVIL I TELL YOU EVILLLLLLLLLLLLL

XD

XCoheedX
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XCoheedX
924 posts
Scribe

^^ Hmm that reminds me of our debate! Haha.

Well we are in the process of mass producing these vehicles, but the price for one tank of hydrogen is over $1,000, so manufacturers are working on the efficiency.

Ricador
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Ricador
3,722 posts
Shepherd

ONE TANK OF HYDROGEN IS $1,00

Wow.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.......... EVILLLLLLLLLLLLLL

thelistman
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thelistman
1,416 posts
Shepherd

Let the market decide.

Strop
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Strop
10,817 posts
Bard

While that seems to be the thing to do, in the most general sense, just how wise it is to 'let the market decide' depends on whether market considerations include considerations of consequence- particularly environmental.

Flipski
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Flipski
623 posts
Nomad

I think It would be an awesome idea. There are a few problems however. Well first of all, let me say that although the hydrogen would be pressurized, it wouldn't be much different that driving with gasoline, gasoline is one of the most flammable things you could put in a tank underneath your seat. I don't see why people are whining. Anyways, back to what i was saying, to make it more efficient we need to figure out a way to store more hydrogen in a tank, possibly in a solid state. I was thinking about this a couple of days ago, we could dope the hydrogen with another chemical that encourages bonding, causing hydrogen to solidify at a much lower temperature/pressure. Also what would be even more amazing is if we made hydrogen cars that did not need to go get refueled with hydrogen. The process of obtaining hydrogen from water (hydrolysis) is a very simple process. What we could do is create a car that you could plug in at night and it would change the water you have created back into hydrogen for use again. It would be like a large capacity hydrogen energy storage cell that you could replenish by plugging it in. This way we would just be paying for electricity, no need to go get hydrogen at some hydrogen fueling station that there are currently few of.

SkullZero1
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SkullZero1
511 posts
Nomad

Scientist are doing some work with this, (note, the info you about to hear came from a program on the science channel, yes, I know, I'm a mega geek) this one guy made a hydrogen car and had hydrogen tanks in his front lawn, he said (forgot how) that it was actually very safe, safer then gasoline. Everything ran really good but the one problem was that the whole system, including the tanks, and making the car was really, and I mean really expensive (we talking millions dude) but they are currently working on making it cheaper.

SkullZero1
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SkullZero1
511 posts
Nomad

oh wait, i think the total price was also including the price for his future home that uses hydrogen as well, not sure saw it a while ago.

sorry for double post but i think you needed to hear that also. please make edits soon ^^;

Devoidless
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Devoidless
3,678 posts
Jester

Hydrogen at this point is only so expensive because no one really can use it as of now.

Gas was cheap because there were countless pumping stations, refineries and at the time a seemingly limitless amount of it. But now, we are realizing there is only so much of it down there.

Making hydrogen gas is an amazingly simple process as said. The problem is that there are not enough manufacturing plants for it, and the ones we have today are not large scale by any meaning of the word.

Considering that hydrogen is essentially just water with the oxygen removed, it truly is a renewable and self-replenishing fuel. When the hydrogen is used, guess what? It turns back into water. No other fuel we have today can do that.

Strop
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Strop
10,817 posts
Bard

Fun fact: You can actually separate oxygen and hydrogen in water by passing an electric current through it!

Of course we couldn't possible expect such a process to form the bulk of mass production for hydrogen- currently such processes require fossil fuels to generate for one and it's not even as efficient.

Anyway, if you want a reference to some of the most direct commentary on this very topic, you can look here. I will stress though that this Wiki article cannot be taken as fact or an authority for two reasons: 1) while it covers a lot it does not have enough rigor in parts, and 2) it's not really possible to approach this topic rigorously because it is still highly speculative.

The fuel is great. The problem is mainly "how do we start producing it?" Personally I feel we'll eventually work our way to it though it'll probably take a long time...maybe even longer than our own lifetimes.

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