Throughout the unit in Chemical Reactions, a big message was the efficiency that different reactions would produce. Specifically, we looked at the relationship between complete and incomplete combustion as well as hydrogen fuel. In the next three paragraphs you are about to read I will be explaining why hydrogen is the better choice for fueling our machines in the future, the chemistry behind the hydrogen fuel, and finally the cons of hydrogen fuel.
When comparing hydrogen to gasoline there a several key points that jump out which suggest that hydrogen is a better power source. Firstly, hydrogen is more readily available then the other fossil fuels which we currently use today to create gasoline. Hydrogen can be found trapped in the earth’s water, which once all of the hydrogen is converted into a usable fuel, it would
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However, there are some cons to hydrogen fueling which is why scientists are still in conflict about this topic. Firstly, in order to extract the hydrogen necessary to power cars and other vehicles it would have to come from methane. By doing this it would lead to a cleaner fueling source however the methane would release large amounts of carbon dioxide in the process. To add, once the hydrogen is harvested in order to split it into individual molecules it would take lots of electrical power which would again have huge impacts on the environment and we still haven't converted hydrogen into a usable fuel source yet. Als this hydrogen reaction is very explosive, which raises the question would it be safe to use in vehicles when all it takes is a single spark for it to explode. Finally in order to fuel the cars, gas stations would have to be remodeled as well as the cars we currently use today. This would cost billions and billions of dollars just to allow for the new system of hydrogen fuel to be
Solar energy can be turned into electricity through solar cells 15%=cheap, 40% efficiency=expensive. Caloric theory of heat=caloric fluid flows from hot object to cold. Heat engine=
This source mainly concentrates on the use of hydrogen fuel cells as an alternative to the United States dependency on foreign oil. It elaborates on the negatives of our countries reliance upon external sources for the vast majority of our power production needs, and suggests that hydrogen fuel cells are the answer to a sustainable energy future. The author is a writer for CQ Researcher who concentrates on energy, environmental, and defense issues. While the article is mainly geared toward individuals interested in the automotive industry and the applications of hydrogen fuel cells in vehicles, it does an excellent job of contrasting oil based
First, the article claims that the fuel cell engines utilize easily available , renewable resources. However, the professor refutes that by saying that the resources are not easily available. Although, hydrogen is available in water, but it's not usable. She said it must be in apurified liquid state and it's highly artificial, so the process of produce and stor the liquid hydrogen is not easy because
The unit, Chemical Reactions and Fossil Fuels, is designed for a 10th grade Honors Chemistry. Students will explore the ideas of heat, energy and chemical reactions. Students will connect the concept of energy and chemical reactions with their impact on their environment. Students will focus on fossil fuels as a form of energy and if they are harmful to the environment. Students will use previous chemistry curriculum when we discuss the meaning of energy, heat, and chemical reactions; they will have the opportunity to think about the impact of fossil fuels on the environment; and finally students will research and defend their position on fossil fuels and alternative energy in a debate format. This will demonstrate what they are thinking and what they have learned throughout this unit.
The use of a hydrogen fleet, would solve many of the existing emissions issues associated with diesel fuel usage. ”Vision Motor calls their hydrogen tractor a Zero Emissions Terminal Tractor, or ZETA. It's the right thing for southern California because of its benefits to people's health, says LaRosa, citing lung and respiratory diseases blamed on exhaust smoke from internal combustion engines.” (http://www.truckinginfo.com/article/story/2012/04/hydrogen-fuel-cells-could-be-socal-fleets-future.aspx) Hydrogen offers no emissions in the air other than vapor, and fuel economy is better than most gasoline powered vehicles, roughly in the 30-50% range. Currently hydrogen is very costly to produce, and there isn’t enough infrastructure to support a full fleet of
Instead, if you use that electricity to split water, separate the hydrogen with extreme purity, pressurize it to crazy levels (or, even worse, liquefy), transfer it to a giant (even in liquid form) hydrogen storage tank in the car and then recombine it with oxygen to generate electricity, you would be lucky to get ~20% efficiency. Expensive, complex, bulky and super inefficient. It loses on every dimension.” Musk said in an email exchange with Tim Urban (Urban). Now on to gas engines they have over 200 parts to an electric engine’s 10.
Even though hydrogen as a fuel seems to answer every problem we want it to; it also has setbacks. Although we have the technology now to bring us an endless supply of hydrogen fuel we do not have the storage or infrastructure capabilities for it. “Hydrogen
The Hydrogen Fuel Cell could revolutionize the world. This ingenious technology, which creates electricity from the chemical reactions of hydrogen and oxygen has, in its 150-year history, passed many of the critical tests along the path from invention to innovation. Recent developments in fuel cell technology and concurrent developments within the energy and automotive industries have brought the world to brink of the fuel cell age and the hydrogen economy.
Using hydrogen fuel is another way to increase power of engines. Compared to other fuels, hydrogen combustion is powerful. It can easily take off hundreds of tonnes and reach a speed of more than the sound (for examples, rocket use hydrogen combustion to take off) As the rockets use it, they reach a speed more than sound few minutes and just imagine what a speed cars will have by using hydrogen.
Fuel cell vehicles (FCV) run on hydrogen gas rather than gasoline. Several challenges must be overcome before these vehicles will be competitive with conventional vehicles (powered by petroleum). (U.S department of energy)
Scientists have also figured out how to harness solar energy, using electricity from photovoltaic cells to yield hydrogen that can be later used in fuel cells. But hydrogen has failed to catch on as a practical fuel for cars or for power generation in a world designed around liquid fuels.
However, some pundits are concerned that adopting hydrogen energy as the sole strategy for the issues facing the automobile’s future is problematic because of the lengthy time frame in which they are projected to become ubiquitous. Furthermore, the present infrastructure for the distribution of hydrogen fuel sources or the production of hydrogen fuel cells is not only insufficient, but slow to develop. As such, fossil fuels are presently the main source for hydrogen production, which means that hydrogen vehicles do not successfully decouple the automobile from a fossil fuel economy. This is also widely inefficient because it will generate four times the carbon dioxide emissions generated by gasoline efficient automobiles. Furthermore, compressing hydrogen for the purposes of
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
For the past three decades Oil dominates the agenda of political discussion. With scares over price volatility, sizes of reserves, international imports and least of which are the environmental impacts due to carbon dioxide and other emissions. Various speculations and educated guesses place our total depletion of crude oil within the next 50 years and there is a general consensus between environmentalists that we steer toward a hydrogen transportation system given the projected work and nonexistent carbon dioxide emissions (Environmental Technologies class lecture, Santa Clara University). However many barriers stand in the way of attaining such a goal, most of which pertaining
On a volumetric basis, the energy density of hydrogen is very low under ambient conditions. This presents greater transportation and storage hurdles than for liquid fuels. Storage systems being developed include compressed hydrogen, liquid hydrogen, and physical or chemical bonding between hydrogen and a storage material (for example, metal hydrides).The ability to create hydrogen from a variety of resources and its