Question by joem852: How will hydrogen be manufactured and made available for fuel cell powered cars like the GM Sequel?
Would like to know the manufacturing process and energy source – solar, wind. Interested in the associated economics and the timing for the US and world to be able to completely convert from gasoline to hydrogen powered cars.
Best answer:
Answer by Cazort
Hydrogen as a fuel source is created as energy is stored in a fuel cell, like a battery. It is created by electrolysis of water–running an electrical current through water in order to separate it into hydrogen and oxygen. These are then later recombined to release energy. It’s much like a battery.
Conceivably, you could use any electrical power source to create the hydrogen. If you used fossil fuels, it would actually be worse than using them directly, because there is about a 30% efficiency in converting fossil fuels to electricity, but still only about a 40% efficiency in converting hydrogen fuel to energy…so you’d lose a lot and it would be better to just burn the fossil fuels. If you’re powering it from solar, though, it would be cleaner…but less energy efficient.
In terms of long-term energy impact, things like fuel cell powered cars won’t really make much of a difference at all. The big difference comes in reduction of energy uses–lighter vehicles like sedans instead of SUV’s, more fuel-efficient vehicles, people using public transportation like buses and rails more…etc. These things will have a much bigger impact on the environment than just moving over our energy source.
Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!
