ALT-1 How Hydrogen Fuel Engines Work
Hydrogen technology, while not completely new, has been of the main projects of a few major automotive manufacturers and the United States government for some time. The leader in the field is General Motors, however, BMW has also created some incredible uses of hydrogen powered vehicles, using many of the same vehicle principles that are currently in use on standard vehicles.
First, there is the BMW option. They have successfully shown that a hydrogen powered vehicle is possible. The major problem with BMW is that they haven't really created a vehicle that would be efficient enough for consumers to even consider. The major problem is that while the vehicle uses the same type of combustion engine with a few modifications that is currently in use, it requires a substantial amount of hydrogen in order to power it. The problem has been attempting to store as much hydrogen as needed by the vehicle. This would mean that consumers would have to stop every 50 miles in order to refuel. This of course wouldn't be practical for most consumers, unless they just planned on refueling every night when they came home.
So, BMW has another concept that they are working on and testing. They have found that if stored in a liquid state, they could obtain a much higher efficiency off of the hydrogen and allow the vehicle to hold much more of it. The problem that they are facing is that liquid hydrogen is incredibly cold, so finding a means of storing it without causing a variety of other issues in the vehicle, such as freezing the tank and cracking it, could be quite expensive. It would require several major upgrades that would make the fuel system of the vehicle incredibly solid. This of course would raise the cost of the vehicle to levels that consumers probably wouldn't accept, even for a BMW. So, for now BMW is still out of luck on their project.
General Motors has a substantially different method that they are using to use hydrogen, which is much more efficient and requires little refueling, especially in comparison to the BMW models. Basically, GM is focusing more towards the use of fuel cells. Inside these fuel cells, when hydrogen and water are combined on a platinum powder coated liner, they create a chemical reaction. This reaction produces a small amount of energy. The energy is then stored and used to power the vehicle. The best part is that this reaction can be done over and over with relative efficiency and without the wasting of water which is the key component of this system. With such efficiency, the GM variation of the hydrogen powered vehicle would allow for the vehicle to travel approximately 250 miles before having to fill up the 20 gallon tank. In comparison the BMW vehicle can go about 190 miles, but has a massive 37 gallon tank.
The major benefit of course from this technology is that it releases only water, making it perfectly safe for the environment. The other great thing is that fuel would be incredibly inexpensive and easy to purchase, especially in the GM variation. You could essentially fill up your tank at your own home, eliminating the need for standard fuels and the high costs associated with them.
Unfortunately, while this technology is already available, there is a lot more testing that is required before it is efficient enough to be used by consumers. It is expected that there will be no mass production of these vehicles until 2010 at the very earliest. And some even that may be much sooner than the industry is ready for.
