What are some of the benefits of using hydrogen to power cars?

Answer 1

Before I list the advantages and disadvantages, it is important to note that Hydrogen is simply a medium with which to store energy, it is NOT an energy source, such as wood, gasoline, or atomic energy. The reason for this, is that Hydrogen does not exist in nature in large quantities, except in molecular compounds of one form or another... thus, to get Hydrogen, you must first extract the Hydrogen atoms from another molecular compound, such as water (Which contains Hydrogen and Oxygen) or even from Gasoline (which contains Hydrogen, Carbon, and Oxygen). In fact, a gallon of gasoline even contains more Hydrogen than a gallon of Liquid Hydrogen.

Thus, it requires us to spend energy to create hydrogen to use in a fuel cell or combustion engine, unlike naturally occurring fuel sources like Wood, which grow/form on their own and only require us to release the energy through burning it (or splitting the atom like in Nuclear Fission). Gasoline is considered a fuel source because even though it needs to be refined, the energy it provides is greater than the energy it takes to refine it. The same is not true for Hydrogen.

Some of the advantages of Hydrogen:

-It no longer requires us to be reliant on Gasoline as an energy source.

-It burns MUCH cleaner than other fuels, since it's only by-product is water.

-In Fuel Cell use, it requires no combustion, which means fewer moving parts that can break in the engine.

-It is in a small list of fuels which are: widely available, stable enough to be transported safely, and has a sufficient energy density so the fuel tank does not need to be larger than the rest of the vehicle.

-Hydrogen can be created wherever it is needed, so you will no longer need to "Ship" it from the refinery to the gas station. Gas stations could simply have their own generators on-site, allowing them to ship stable liquids like water to extract the Hydrogen from.

Some of the dis-advantages of Hydrogen:

-It takes more power to create it than it generates, so the power needs to come from somewhere else, which can be hydroelectric, coal, solar, geothermal, etc.

-Its energy density is significantly lower than gasoline, so you need a larger fuel tank to generate the same amount of power.

-Much like gasoline, it is flammable, but can be explosive if mixed with enough oxygen, so the fuel tank must be protected extremely well.

-The fuel infrastructure in most countries is not set up for Hydrogen, so gasoline stations would need to be converted in large numbers, quickly.

Answer 2

pro it is very eco friendly and will run on water which will make it cheap along with a silent close to zero noise engine and no co2 smoke or smells no oils to change every month. cons- current prototypes are very slow , very small , no confurt

Answer 3

benefits are extraordinary... zero emissions, however vehicles cannot run on hydrogen alone with any efficiency