This time the race is against Mother Nature and the prize is the world for our children. Oil has powered the world for more than a century but it has gifted us soot, smog and lung cancer. And of course, the Greenhouse Effect. Competing against the apocalyptic vision of a world without oil are numerous alternative technologies. Today, we are looking at the sun for solar energy, at the Earth for natural gas, at the winds for wind energy…anything which will provide us with a sustainable and cheap solution.
On that list is an abundant element – Hydrogen. Hydrogen though is not available in its elemental state on Earth. It combines with oxygen to form water, or is chained to carbon in methane and petroleum. Hydrogen in fossil fuels reacts with oxygen in the atmosphere to release chemical energy. This is the first hurdle of hydrogen-as-a-fuel systems. To use hydrogen as a fuel, energy is required to free hydrogen into its elemental state.
A Google search yields a zillion results for the term ‘hydrogen conversion kits’. They all claim to be the elixir to free us from the enslavement of petroleum. Claiming to increase fuel economy, they all work on a basic principle – take water, conduct electricity through it from the car’s electrical system which electrolyses the water down into hydrogen and oxygen, and then combust the ensuing gasses in the cylinders of the car. The claims say that a car can be powered by water.
But the whole efficiency theory of this advertised claim goes against a sixth grader’s understanding of science. The electrolysis of water into constituent oxygen and hydrogen takes energy. This energy cannot be less than what we get from combusting the resulting hydrogen and oxygen to power a car engine. Water is unfortunately not a source of unlimited energy; it is merely a byproduct of a chemical reaction.
Therefore, this mode of hydrogen generation results in inherent losses of energy during the conversion. Also, electricity comes primarily from coal-fired power plants. Using this electricity to make hydrogen defeats the whole purpose. Probably this is why this mode of hydrogen power has remained in the realm of hobbyists rather than the mass.
But this is not to say that hydrogen is not an alternative fuel source. Today, many working prototypes exist which use two methods of power –
Hydrogen internal combustion engine – hydrogen is burnt in engines in essentially the same method as regular internal combustion engine vehicles.
Fuel-cell conversion – hydrogen is reacted with oxygen to produce water and electricity, the latter being used to power an electric traction motor. These are costly to produce.
As research continues to make the tech cheaper and efficient, many demonstration technologies use hydrogen to power cars, trucks, electrical plants and buildings but it remains woefully handicapped by the absence of widespread infrastructure for producing, transporting, and storing large quantities of hydrogen which has severely dented its acceptance.
