Hydrogen Engine

[Lethedethius]

I'm reading a bunch of websites about replacing the gasoline with hydrogen. Has anyone heard the buzz on this, is it simple to implement? It seems in a nutshell a glass of water being electrified with something catching the hydrogen and tunnelling it into the combustion chamber of an engine.

websites I'm visiting:

[links removed by admin]

I got a 72 el camino I could implement this in if it's dumb nif fied for me.

[Frank Lee]

Oh absolutely, it's so simple I could do it in my sleep zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.....

[robchalmers]

its so amazing that every single manufacturer hasn't caught on.

[Ryland]

The only people who are seeing any benefit from them are the ones selling plans on how to build them, thing is that it's not hard to build, just like it's not hard to put dirt in your pockets, will dirt in your pockets make you rich? nope but it will make you feel like you have something in your pocket.
So far no one who has spent the time and money to install water electrolysis in there car has come back and said that it works and could prove that it improved mileage, proving that is improves mileage is simple, plug in a scan gauge and set it to give read time MPG read out (based of how long the injectors are open injecting gas in to the engine) then drive down the road with cruse control on, if your hydrogen setup really works then as soon as you turn it on you should see a bump up in mileage, or turn it off and see a drop, but so far no one has been able to do that.

[Pholostan]

To prove a mpg increase you'll have to break the laws of thermodynamics. Not gonna happen. The energy needed to make the hydrogen is far more than the energy you get from burning the hydrogen. Go figure...

[Thymeclock]

Ever since the Hindenburg disaster hydrogen has been viewed unfavorably as a fuel.

A gas that is already being used in vehicles and has been for quite a long time is compressed natural gas. The technology has been proven safe, clean and efficient. Apparently the problem is not one of building vehicles that can utilize it; it's probably in building refueling stations that are idiot proof.

Unfortunately America has no shortage of idiots.

[UFO]

Great, let's swap one non-renewable CO2 producing foreign fuel for another. We are currently importing LNG and it's not currently a widespread vehicle fuel.

[Rokeby]

I can think of 3 things that argue against the widespread use of hydrogen:
* You have to use energy to make and store/compress it.
* If you don't make your own, where you gonna get it, there is no distribution network, which would be massively expensive.
* It is very, very dangerous to handle... something like this:

BLEVE (Boiling Liquid Expending Vapor Explosion)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWjxr...eature=related

[robchalmers]

not to fight Hydrogen's corner, but don't we need massive, town-like refineries that guzzle energy to produce Gasoline??

Algae farms, algae diesel and carbon capture are the future!!!!!!!!!!

[UFO]

Originally Posted by robchalmers

not to fight Hydrogen's corner, but don't we need massive, town-like refineries that guzzle energy to produce Gasoline??

Algae farms, algae diesel and carbon capture are the future!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, however it's a matter of degree. Manufacturing hydrogen wastes much more energy than a gasoline refinery, and the end product is not nearly as energy dense. It doesn't make sense to me to create a massive new infrastructure that results in wasting even more of the process inputs than before. It seems irresponsible.