What is a hydrogen car?

What is a hydrogen car?

Hydrogen cars run on hydrogen fuel which is tapped after hydrogen atoms are broken up and then re-combined with the atoms of oxygen. This can be done through electrolysis, wherein electric current is applied through water. Most of these hydrogen-fueled vehicles operate on fuel cells. There are other hydrogen-based vehicles that however use the traditional internal combustion device through harnessing of liquid hydrogen in place of gasoline.

There are 100% hydrogen powered vehicles that are being used in certain areas around the globe. The downside with these hydrogen vehicles, however, is the lack of infrastructure that would complement the maintenance of these vehicles. It would take trillions of dollars to replace the current gasoline fueling system that most countries use. Also, hydrogen fuel cells that are necessary in harnessing the mechanical energy of hydrogen atoms are quite costly to produce. These devices are also fragile, and they cannot withstand the vibrations and bumps that cars experience during road trips.

How Does Hydrogen Car Work?

In recent years automotive experts are spending most of their time on hydrogen cars.Keeping the high price of fuel in head experts are trying to develop a hydrogen car which will not only be fuel efficient but also be environment friendly.Hydrogen cars work through the use of a fuel cell, which is responsible for electrolyzing water. This means that water’s two components - hydrogen and oxygen - are separated by the use of direct electrical current. The fuel cells can be installed in the engine and filled with water. Hydrogen cars can also work by simply refilling the tank with liquid hydrogen.
However, like most new discoveries or inventions, there are still downsides to the use of hydrogen cars. For instance, if the car uses fuel cells, one needs to keep the electrical charge of the hydrogen generator to create the needed HHO gas. On the other hand, using liquid hydrogen entails the use of a fuel tank which is larger than a regular gas tank. Also, there is not much refilling stations for hydrogen cars using liquid hydrogen.

Still, the good news is that experts are currently working on addressing these issues. For instance, some countries are preparing for the time when hydrogen cars are mass produced by building hydrogen refilling stations. Despite the billions of dollars needed in putting the necessary infrastructure for hydrogen refilling stations, countries like China and the United States are working overtime on establishing a hydrogen refilling network.

When the time comes that cars are run on hydrogen, a lot of issues concerning the use of fossil based fuel will be instantly addressed. For one, the most pressing concern is the exorbitant price of gasoline products. Since water is such an abundant resource, motorists do not have to shell out a fortune in order to run their vehicles. This will revolutionize the way we do business, and would tremendously affect what has been an oil-based global economy. Cars that are fueled by hydrogen can also improve the air quality, since emissions of vehicles using gasoline have been known as the primary culprit to air pollution.

5 Fuel-Saving Technologies

In the long run, the internal combustion engine (ICE) is on the way out and electric motors are on the way in, but ICEs have been around for so loooong that we should be careful about announcing their demise. They're going to stick around a while longer, and so it's very important to make them as efficient and clean as possible.

Clean Diesel
Various advances such as the availability of ultra low sulfur diesel fuel, better catalysts and particulate matter traps, better control over combustion are making diesel engines cleaner, so you can expect a new wave of diesel passenger vehicles to come to the US in the next few years.
Diesel engines are certainly far from perfect, but they have inherently better thermal efficiency than gasoline engines, and they are usually more durable (if also more expensive and heavier). Another benefit is that they can run on biodiesel, which if you can find fuel made from waste cooking oil or (in the next few years) from algae can be very green.

Direct Injection
Before direct injection, the fuel was mixed with air in the car's intake manifold. Now, with direct injection, the fuel is mixed with air inside the cylinder, allowing for better control over the amount of fuel used, and variations depending on demand (acceleration vs. cruising). This makes the engine more fuel efficient.

Cylinder Deactivation
The name says it all. ICEs with this feature can simply deactivate some cylinders when less power is required, temporarily reducing the total volume of the engine cylinders and so burning less fuel. This feature is found on V6 and V8 engines.

Turbochargers
Turbochargers increase the pressure inside cylinders, cramming more air and allowing combustion to generate more power. This doesn't make the engine more economical in itself, but since a smaller displacement engine can generate more peak power, you can more easily downsize and save there.

Variable Valve Timing and Lift
Valves open and close to allow air and fuel to enter cylinders and for the products of combustion to exit. Different valve timings produce different results (more power, better fuel economy). Traditionally, you couldn't vary that timing, so the choice had to be made once when the engine was designed. But many modern engines can vary valve timing, allowing for example the default low RPM range of the engine to have more economical timing, and the higher RPM range to go for max power. This allows a smaller displacement engine to produce more peak power, so it allows for downsizing and fuel savings.