Hydrogen, number one on the Periodic Table of elements, and the most common element on our planet Earth. It may come as a surprise to many, or maybe not at all, that hydrogen could be used as a form of fuel for things such as trucks and cars.
It is no new news that Hydrogen can be used as a fuel, since it has been on rockets as they are pushed out of orbit. Now all we have to do is figure out a way to be able to use it in our everyday lives. The good thing about Hydrogen is that it can be used in internal combustion engines like the ones we use today with our gasoline-powered cars. Hydrogen has a high amount of energy in its chemical bond, liquid Hydrogen boils at –252.77 degrees Celsius, and has a density of 70.99 g/l. Because of these characteristics, Hydrogen has the highest energy-to-weight-ratio of all fuels; one kilogram of Hydrogen has the same amount of energy as 2.8 kilograms of gasoline.
As of right now, gasoline is the main source of fuel for the transportation we use in the United States, and the world. Gasoline comes from petroleum that we mine from outside of our country and then have shipped back, and refined to make the clear substance we fill our cars with. Once in the system, the way it powers the vehicle is through the internal combustion engines all of our cars are equipped with. What the engine does is pretty simple once you think about it. It compresses a mixture of air and gasoline into a small and enclosed space, then ignites it, which releases energy for movement, but results in carbon dioxide as a by-product.
Hydrogen can be used in one of two ways. The first, the same way as you would use gasoline, in an internal combustion engine. The other would be in a fuel cell to produce electricity. When in a...
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Hydrogen is a diatomic element that is in a gaseous form at room temperature. Its most identifying characteristic is the fact that it is highly explosive. It is the lightest element in the world, and has a lifting power of 8% more than that of helium. Hydrogen was used in airships and zeppelins for more than 20 years during the beginning of the 20th century. This practice stopped abruptly after the German airship Hindenburg disaster over New Jersey. It is used in fuel cells to create electricity, and to power cars and planes. Liquid hydrogen is mixed with liquid oxygen to form a cryogenic liquid that is burnt in Solid Rocket Boosters to power the space shuttle. Hydrogen is used to fill weather balloons because of its superb lifting power.
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U.S. energy dependence is higher today than it was during the oil shock of the 1970's, and oil imports are projected to increase. Passenger vehicles alone consume 6 million barrels of oil every single day. If just 20 percent of cars used full cells, we could cut oil imports by 1.5 million barrels every day. 10,000 fuel cell vehicles running on non-petroleum fuel would reduce oil consumption by 6.98 million gallons a year.
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Recent years have shown an increasingly large need for a practical renewable energy source for such reasons as diminishing fossil fuels and increases in greenhouse gasses. Hydrogen appears to be a way out of this gasoline-dug hole, or at least, a way out in the future. Hydrogen fuel cell cars are being engineered as we speak as the technologies to refuel them cleanly are being proposed. Unfortunately, most of the technologies associated with hydrogen are still in the prototype/pre-production stages and require better enhancements before becoming mainstream. This paper assesses the practicality of hydrogen power in cars both now and in the future while explicating the actual process of how a hydrogen fuel cell works.
Hydrogen would be one of the easiest sources of renewable energy to incorporate into our current energy infrastructure. Since hydrogen is a gas of normal temperature, it is possible to have it be used as a fuel in vehicles similar to current ones. For example, Hydrogen could be introduced into the vehicle as a gas, stored...
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