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The hydrogen economy (and thus the hydrogen car) has very serious issues. The biggest problem with hydrogen is safety. As a rule, the monomolecular hydrogen gas is very hard to contain, has a low density, and a very low boiling point. Thus hydrogen fuel tanks must be highly pressurized. Seals must be perfect and even low-volume leaks cannot be tolerated without risking a hydrogen explosion.
Hydrogen has a very wide range of explosive mixture ratios with air (compared to a narrow range for natural gas and other fuels). There is no question that switching from gas or gas-electric hybrids to hydrogen will result in more explosive fires, the question is how many are tolerable?
Finally, hydrogen generation is fairly easy to do--from petrochemicals. But that doesn't solve our oil problem. It can also be generated from water (even polluted water or salt water) but this is an extremely energy-intensive process and would require a huge increase in grid baseload capacity. I do not know if hydrogen can be generated from biological/biofuel sources.
I, too, used to be excited about hydrogen vehicles. But the reality of the situation is that they are less technically feasible than other options. Perhaps someday this will change, but for the present, a viable hydrogen economy or even widespread use of hydrogen vehicles is still several decades away.
This.
The reality is, even with spongeified palladium it can only hold so much. Further, hydrogen is inherently dangerous.
BMW created some 7-series cars with ultra-insulated and reinforced H2 tanks that took liquefied H2. In order for it to remain liquefied, it has to be super cold. Pretty dangerous if you ask me. One little crack and you're losing fuel rapidly. And can spark quite easily.
Anyway, I have hope that it's merely an engineering problem and thus can be solved. Just not quite yet.
BMW created some 7-series cars with ultra-insulated and reinforced H2 tanks that took liquefied H2. In order for it to remain liquefied, it has to be super cold. Pretty dangerous if you ask me. One little crack and you're losing fuel rapidly. And can spark quite easily.
Of course the same can be said about gasoline tanks, right?
kept cold?
You mean under pressure in a tank?
Much like a propane tank?
When it is let out of the tank rapidly the temp of the tank drops.
There are many vehicles that use propane from small cars to large trucks.
They use a tank much like the ones used for hydrogen but they are a different color.
Quote:
Originally Posted by eskercurve
This.
The reality is, even with spongeified palladium it can only hold so much. Further, hydrogen is inherently dangerous.
BMW created some 7-series cars with ultra-insulated and reinforced H2 tanks that took liquefied H2. In order for it to remain liquefied, it has to be super cold. Pretty dangerous if you ask me. One little crack and you're losing fuel rapidly. And can spark quite easily.
Anyway, I have hope that it's merely an engineering problem and thus can be solved. Just not quite yet.
kept cold?
You mean under pressure in a tank?
Much like a propane tank?
When it is let out of the tank rapidly the temp of the tank drops.
There are many vehicles that use propane from small cars to large trucks.
They use a tank much like the ones used for hydrogen but they are a different color.
The difference is the coldness and pure vacuum needed. It's two order of magnitudes more difficult to keep H2 in a liquid state.
How cold is cold? Try 20K (yes, 20 deg C above absolute zero) for Hydrogen's boiling point. Propane is -42 deg C before boiling point, which is 230 K.
Anything needing that much pressure and vacuum will never be commercially viable, not for another hundred years. While technically feasible, BMW themselves said that that 7 series was so costly and prone to breaking down they won't consider it again until technology is ready.
So until then, we're stuck with gas. Plain and simple. Solar doesn't have the energy density, batteries don't give you the peace of mind that gas does and the infrastructure isn't there yet and likely won't ever be, I mean seriously, who wants to wait 8 hours in the middle of a road trip while your car charges?
The difference is the coldness and pure vacuum needed. It's two order of magnitudes more difficult to keep H2 in a liquid state.
How cold is cold? Try 20K (yes, 20 deg C above absolute zero) for Hydrogen's boiling point. Propane is -42 deg C before boiling point, which is 230 K.
Anything needing that much pressure and vacuum will never be commercially viable, not for another hundred years. While technically feasible, BMW themselves said that that 7 series was so costly and prone to breaking down they won't consider it again until technology is ready.
So until then, we're stuck with gas. Plain and simple. Solar doesn't have the energy density, batteries don't give you the peace of mind that gas does and the infrastructure isn't there yet and likely won't ever be, I mean seriously, who wants to wait 8 hours in the middle of a road trip while your car charges?
Nothing like fear uncertainty and doubt to scare people for no reason....
Hydrogen Power in Real Life: Clean and Energy Efficient
The Hawaii Hydrogen Initiative (H2I), an innovative partnership among 13 agencies, companies and universities, seeks to develop hydrogen infrastructure in Hawaii with the goal of displacing petroleum imports by operating vehicles with renewable hydrogen.
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