Hydrogen Cars

Cars of the Future – Hydrogen Cars

Water.

Water is the driving force behind all life on earth, sustaining and nourishing the global population. Without water, the world would be a hot, dry place with little room for life. As technology advances water will also become the fuel that we use to power our cars.

Sort of.

Hydrogen powered vehicles are gaining rapid popularity as the media sensationalizes the idea of a vehicle, powered by compressed liquid hydrogen, that can run for a long distance and only leave one harmless byproduct, water.

How They Work

Hydrogen is the lightest element in the world, and it is also one of the most abundant, being found in over 90% of all terrestrial things. In fact, were you to spill liquid hydrogen, it would begin to clean itself up immediately, as it escapes 14 times faster than air.

In principle, a hydrogen powered vehicle operates almost identically to a gasoline powered vehicle. Most modern gasoline engines can actually be modified to run on hydrogen via a split tank system, allowing you to switch between hydrogen and gasoline at the flick of a switch.

When hydrogen is burned the only emission is water, the hydrogen atoms combine with oxygen to form H2O, water. This solves two problems; our dependence on fossil fuels and foreign oil as well as the harmful emissions that these fossil fuels create as a by product of their combustion.

Though hydrogen doesn’t burn quite as easily as gasoline, it is able to burn sufficiently to generate a significant amount of power and thrust. This means that in the future, when hydrogen vehicles become the mainstream, we’ll still be able to produce powerful and sporty vehicles.

Drawbacks of Hydrogen

The main setback right now is that hydrogen must be stored in a liquid state under thousands of pounds of pressure. These pressurized storage tanks, which are almost always made out of a carbon fiber composite materials, can add up to $15,000 of the total cost of the vehicle. However, with the low cost of hydrogen and the lack of any kind of harmful emissions, you must seriously ask yourself if the $15,000 is a worthwhile investment.

Of course, just like the gasoline powered car, price will come down as we gain the ability to mass produce hydrogen engines and fuel storage systems. It’s only a matter of time and innovation.