Hydrogen fuel

[tropicrows]

Where I work, one of the researchers has been working on hydrogen fuel cells and storage for 12 odd years. For big installations it's can be done because the material used for the hydrogen cell & cell storage is static and just sits there. This type of cell & storage system uses materials that produce & absorb hydrogen easily the down side the material is heavy & bulky. If you want a hydrogen cell system for a car than it’s a totally different ball game. Currently there are no cost effective materials suitable for use in a car, the research is ongoing. You can produce hydrogen quite easy but you can’t store it in the volume needed, it can’t be compressed in to a liquid like LPG. We make small “200 bar” pressure cells approximately 200 mm long by 40 mm in diameter with a 12 mm hole up the guts for hydrogen storage. Apart from being way too small for a car, can you imagine that failing in your car there would be no car or anything else for 100 meters.

[Triple]

The rotary engine is well suited to hydrogen due to the combustion process especially now with direct injection. But the amount you need an storage are the issue, 110L hydrogen tank only get 100km in the RX8.

http://www.mazda.com/mazdaspirit/rotary/hre/index.html

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mazda_RX-8_Hydrogen_RE


http://www.mazda.com/csr/download/pd...2012_s_p44.pdf

[Noelm]

It is not just the amount of fuel used, we also need to consider the way in which your car is refueled, no one will be able to turn up to a "hydro station" and undo what is such a potentially dangerous gas and swap a bottle, one thing engineers face is convenience, we all want to go fast and cheap, and not have to park in the sun for days, or plug in over night so you can go 30k's to work the next day.

[Jarrah Jack]

It is not just the amount of fuel used, we also need to consider the way in which your car is refueled, no one will be able to turn up to a "hydro station" and undo what is such a potentially dangerous gas and swap a bottle, one thing engineers face is convenience, we all want to go fast and cheap, and not have to park in the sun for days, or plug in over night so you can go 30k's to work the next day.

Its easier to play the cynic but the point is that fossil fuel has shaped to a large extent the way society is today. Once it runs out then society will have no alternative than to shape itself around what can be achieved with other fuels.

Certainly not a nice prospect especially with outboard motors and the way they guzzle. Best we enjoy it while we can.

[Triple]

It is not just the amount of fuel used, we also need to consider the way in which your car is refueled, no one will be able to turn up to a "hydro station" and undo what is such a potentially dangerous gas and swap a bottle, one thing engineers face is convenience, we all want to go fast and cheap, and not have to park in the sun for days, or plug in over night so you can go 30k's to work the next day.

Japan has had hydrogen fuel stations since 2005 for the hydro RX8 and Plenty of hydrogen fuel stations popping up around the world which anyone can use an you can even get a home station -
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydro...tion#section_1

[Jarrah Jack]

never going to happen, a car can never run on

I clearly said that the generator runs off a biomass fuel.

[Noelm]

I clearly said that the generator runs off a biomass fuel.

OK, must be just my slow reading and understanding.

[Triple]

http://www.mazda.com/mazdaspirit/env...emacy_hre.html

[TheRealAndy]

Its easier to play the cynic but the point is that fossil fuel has shaped to a large extent the way society is today. Once it runs out then society will have no alternative than to shape itself around what can be achieved with other fuels.

Certainly not a nice prospect especially with outboard motors and the way they guzzle. Best we enjoy it while we can.

Try making hydrogen without fossil fuels.

At this point in time, hydrogen is a false economy, it takes a shit load of energy to make. Sure it burns clean, but you burn a lot more coal/oil/uranium to make it in the first place. As tropicrows said, the fuel cell technology has some merit, a long way off yet though.

I do like CATchin'Em link to the hydrogen generator, funny stuff. The good old browns gas thing, cant believe people still get sucked into that shit, but they do.

[Triple]

http://www.popularmechanics.com/_mob...ration/4199381

[tunaticer]

One day in the not too distant future I will choke on my morning coffee when i read in the news that some lil geeky dropout will have devised a way to use nitrogen as a fuel source directly from the air we breathe.
Maybe "fuel source" is not the right terminology but the nitrogen will be the largest part of this equation. We tend to think in terms of fossil fuels and we want to burn something to generate power.......maybe that is a well out dated avenue of thought......maybe that fact that nitrogen is inert is itself an energy source???