Background On Hydrogen Fuel

Sometimes I think we focus too much on the stories about people driving alternative fueled vehicles and how they built them. That means we’re glossing over the science and background information that is really a big part of why and how they got where they are with their projects. So, we will attempt to fill in some of those gaps and would appreciate the help of our readers to do it.  Did you see the “Add Your Content” link in the sidebar?  Please use it…

Hydrogen is an element that exists in abundance all over the earth. It can be found in water and natural and renewable matter such as plants, compost materials, even algae. Hydrogen can be converted into hydrogen gas fuel for many of the same uses as fossil fuels. Hydrogen gas fuel in its purest form must be obtained by the separation of the hydrogen’s chemical bond to those elements. When hydrogen gas fuel is blended with pure oxygen and ignited the only resulting emissions are heat and water!

Each method of distilling the hydrogen to it purest form has its own unique set of pros and cons, from emissions generated by the refining process to finding the most cost effective method of producing hydrogen gas fuel. Currently, steam methane reforming is the most popular method in the United States.

Producing enough hydrogen gas fuel to support mainstream use would likely require new infrastructure, making start-up costs an expensive proposition. Current technology such as electrolysis (passing of electrical current through water in an ionic transfer device) can be adapted on a larger scale by using electricity generated through methods such as windmills or solar panels. In addition, geographic concerns will play a major role in location choices for any hydrogen production facility as ideally any such facility requires a large expanse of open space. However, zero greenhouse gas emissions in the electrolysis method make this a worthwhile, long-term venture.

Hydrogen is an extremely flexible fuel as it can be stored and transported in both liquid and gas forms. Hydrogen gas fuel can be transported in its vapor form roughly one to two hundred miles from the refining facility. For long distance transport up to one thousand miles the hydrogen is transported in liquid form requiring specially designed super-insulated tanks.

Hydrogen gas fuel has the greatest energy to weight ratio of all known and commercially available fuels. When compared to gasoline, hydrogen gas fuel produces roughly three times the amount of energy we obtain from gasoline and over six times the amount of energy we obtain from coal. Nice

Hydrogen gas keeps its efficiency through differing ranges of air fuel mixtures than gas, making it more efficient combustion-wise. The rating of hydrogen gas fuel is equal to that of an octane rating of 130, much greater than the highest octane gas that is available to the consumer at the gas station.

Hydrogen gas fuel can be used to power everything from cities to cell phones. Vehicles ranging from scooters to spacecraft can be operated using hydrogen gas. Consumer vehicles can be produced or even retrofitted to burn this earth friendly fuel. Time will tell if hydrogen gas becomes a viable alternative as gas prices continue to soar.
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This article shared by The editors of hypermilinggas.com.

Tags: Background Information, Chemical Bond, Compost Materials, Cost Effective Method, Flexible Fuel, Fossil Fuels, Gas Fuel, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Hydrogen Bond, Hydrogen Car, Hydrogen Element, Hydrogen Fuel, hydrogen fuel cell, Hydrogen Gas, Hydrogen Production, Location Choices, Producing Hydrogen, Purest Form, Refining Process, Solar Panels, Steam Methane, Using Electricity

Which one of these companies is not working on a hybrid car?

• Chrysler
• Ford
• GM
• Google
• Toyota
• Honda

If you didn’t know Google has it’s fingers in the alternative fuels pie, you’re not alone. Technically speaking, in this case it’s Google.org, the philanthropic that is funding efforts to develop plug-in hybrids.  And they have been for a long time.

A little over a year ago it was reported that Google.org had given out more than $1 million dollars through their RechargeIT program. It went to developers promoting awareness of the new technology as well as to funding technological improvements as well.

Under the RechargeIT program. Google.org took four Toyota Priuses and two Ford Escapes and converted them into plug-in hybrids. There goal was to use this as a test fleet to better understand the capabilities of the technology in the real world.

The company that supplied the conversion modules for Google’s cars was Hymotion. The company began accepting orders for consumer converstions in April, 2008. Their charge for converting a Toyota Prius is $9,995.

In March of 2008, Google. org launched the RechargeIT blog to track the progress of the experiment.  Some of the results reported are very technical, some not so. The bottom line is that all the vehicles in their study show some pretty impressive miles per gallon gains, good environmental (CO2) impacts, and some very affordable general driving and maintenance costs.  Up to a point.

The test vehicles generally get the equivalent of better than 90 miles per gallon. However, they have a very low range of only 30-40 miles. They also only run on electric power when held to very low speeds under 35 mph.

Plug-in hybrids are generally not considered by anyone to be a “final answer” in the search for renewable and usable alternative fuels. There are still some heavy environmental costs considering that most electricity is generated by coal fired plants. Google. org is also funding programs on that side of the coin, investing in solar and wind power development.

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I feel a little silly. Not too long ago I wrote a post about how many different ways people are changing their vehicles to use a widening variety of alternative fuels. There are hydrogen cars, electric power cars, and biofuel cars at the very highest level.

But there are also the straight hybrid variations of each gasoline/ electric and diesel/biodiesel for example. If you really want to get dizzy, here’s a little chart of the next level:

There are so many different ways people are going with their individual conversions that I proposed a couple of names for the “collective” netiher of which I was in love with, and neither of which received any comments from you.

I’m a little surprised someone didn’t take the opportunity to point out to me that a perfectly good name already exists and has been used for years. The government refers to our little corner of the vehicle world as Alternative Fueled Vehicles or AFVs for short. Works for me.

They have also been tracking the growth of the market for these vehicles as well. There’s a lot of mathematical modeling going on as they were only able to actually count fleet vehicles, but you can download this chart showing how many of those fleet AFVs there were in 2005. (Sorry, that’s the latest year I found. If you know of one more recent, please share).

As an added bonus the chart is broken down by state, so you can get a pretty good idea of which states are truly promoting the alternative fuel movement.

Tags: Added Bonus, Afvs, Alternative Fuel, Alternative Fuel Vehicles, alternative fueled vehicles, Alternative Fuels, bio fuel, Biodiesel, Biodiesel Cars, Biofuel, Biofuel Cars, cng, Collective Name, Compressed Natural Gas, Count Fleet, Electric Battery, ethanol, Fleet Vehicles, Fuel Cell, Hydrogen Cars, Hydrogen Fuel, Liquid Petroleum, Liquid Propane, Many Different Ways, Mathematical Modeling, plug hybrid, plug in electric hybrid, Power Cars, Salt Water, Waste Oil