Where's My Hydrogen Car?
4/10/08
Hydrogen Will Strip For Energy
With recent news indicating that gasoline will be approaching $4.00 per gallon this summer-or, now-I have been thinking a lot more about alternative fuels. One of the most promising technologies is Hydrogen Fuel Cells. This could be great, but if Fuel Cell vehicles were available tomorrow, not only would I not understand how they work, I would have no idea how to “fill ‘er up.”
Today, when you fill up your car, you pump gas directly into your tank and then your engine converts it into energy. But hydrogen is not like gasoline; it cannot be put directly into a tank and converted directly into energy. In simplest terms, a hydrogen fuel cell works a little like a battery. A chemical reaction occurs in the fuel cell to make energy and that energy is captured to power the car.
WARNING: This section will bring you right back to high school chemistry. Trauma may occur…
First, that chemical reaction separates the hydrogen molecule from whatever other molecules are in the source fuel (water, algae, coal, etc). Next, the electron on that hydrogen molecule is separated and moves through a circuit creating electricity. Finally, the electron is reunited with the proton and combines with oxygen in the air to produce water, which is what is released through the tailpipe in the car.
If that made no sense (being that you’re a non-chemistry type), you can use my handy-dandy stripper analogy. A person needs money to pay for college (a car needs fuel). To do so, that person gets a job as a stripper (to get a reaction). The music starts and the person flings their clothes off (the hydrogen “strips off” its electron). The clothes flying through the air causes excitement (the electron moving through the circuit to create electricity). Patrons throw money, or place it in the stripper’s undergarments (energy is attained). After all the excitement, er, electricity, the stripper puts his or her clothes back on (electron being reunited with the proton to create water), and exits the stage (water is released from the tailpipe in the car).
That was so much easier to understand, right?
So far, experts say, this process is not very cost-effective and will require a lot of infrastructure changes to load a car’s storage tanks with the little hydrogen molecules stripped from their source. There is lots of research and controversy over what the source should be and whether or not the process of creating hydrogen produces too much carbon dioxide (another chemical reaction I won’t bore you with, as I’m out of stripper analogies) to outweigh the clean benefits of using it as fuel. Time and ingenuity will tell if hydrogen will one day be our wonder fuel.
Comments
Funny analogy Emily. Loved the stripper reference. I had recently been a major skeptic of hydrogen as a fuel source until I spoke with Dan Nocera of MIT during the Aspen Environment Forum who put it into perspective for me. Watch my interview here: http://blog.gmnext.com/
His solution to the dilemma is sunlight for clean hydrogen. Sunlight + water = fuel. Pretty amazing in its simplicity when you think about it.
And to Zoe's comment about ethanol, I am quite excited about the Coskata announcement during the Detroit Auto Show where they announced they have a patented bio-organism that can eat any carbon-based product, except glass and metal, and turn it into ethanol. Amazing! That means tires, plastics, and diapers can be turned into fuel. Cool! And at the TED conference, Craig Venter, the guy who mapped the human genome, announced he's just months away from developing a bio-organism that will eat carbon dioxide (Co2) and turn it into fuel like hydrogen. O the times we live in!
Posted by: MattKelly | Apr 10, 2008 5:36:24 PM
Oh my gosh, I love those TED lecture podcasts! I'll have to look at the one from Mr. Venter.
Posted by: Sara Lacey | Apr 10, 2008 8:34:41 PM
Thank for the info Matt - I am sure Sara is preparing a written brief regarding the lecture series and will be sharing it with all of us Motherproofers soon. Nice to see you here and over at GMNext.
Zoe, you are right on about the overall energy footprint being big, It really blows the mind when you consider the energy footprint (and cost) of building a whole new infrastructure.
Posted by: | Apr 10, 2008 9:16:56 PM
Sara-I'll be interviewing Craig Venter during the Fortune Brainstorm event in Pasadena, CA later this month! Watch for it....
Posted by: MattKelly | Apr 11, 2008 11:08:45 AM
That would be brief (not boxer) - And I have to come clean... The stripper analogy was all Sara. She fully deserves the props on lightening up my geekyness. Thanks girl.
Posted by: Emily | Apr 11, 2008 11:36:08 AM
Want to save at least 50% on your drive to work?
Car Pool!!!
Statistics indicate that over 70% of people drive to work alone in a vehicle that holds at least 5 people!
At present fuel cell cars generate up to 80kw of electric power. This is enough to power all the homes on your block. Why not use the car to power them and charge standard rates for green energy?
I don't think most people even care by their energy wasting habits.
don
Posted by: don | Apr 13, 2008 8:31:45 AM
hydrogen is a fuel in the same way that petrol is...it can be burnt..
hydrogen might soon be purchase from hydrogen stations and pump directly into your car just like petrol.
Posted by: kris stromdale | Apr 13, 2008 4:56:11 PM
For a great explination of hydrogen fuel cell cars and H2 production see this. A long but detailed interview!
don
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBMYqtFkKRY
Posted by: don | Apr 14, 2008 9:38:41 AM
GM's Larry Burns had some interesting reamrks about Hyddrogen during the NHA Conference & expo in Sacramento last week. http://www.gmnext.com/uploads/assets/nha%20-%20larry%20burns.mp3 He states that 12,000 strategically placed hydrogen fueling stations could serve 80% of the US population. Cost? About $2 million per station or $24 billion.
In my opinion, thats no small chunk of change, but if it keeps us off of foreign oil and reduces CO2, $24 billion is a small pricetag.
Posted by: MattKelly | Apr 18, 2008 8:10:14 PM
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hydrogen isn't the only alternative that is getting a bad wrap (i.e. ethanol) and, as you said, it's because these alternatives still need a lot of energy to create. what we need is a radical solution, and fast.
Posted by: zoe | Apr 10, 2008 3:55:16 PM