Alternative Fuels

hi this is supersix 1/4mile from slantsix.com and i saw u had an alternitive energy site for cars and i have had a cool idea in my head for about a year now tell me what ya think.

hydrogen powered but you make the hydrogen as you go
start with a engin that is made so it wont rust as easy then make a electrolosis chamber that creates the hydrogen by seperateing the hydrogen from water with an electrical current then feeding it to the engin in a similar way that you would propane and all you would need for fuel is water (salt water is better) so what do ya think?

I think it's a great idea but the devil is always in the details. To break water into hydrogen and oxygen through electrolysis, you need a lot of electricity. To do this you would either need a huge battery pack or an on-board electrical generator. Battery packs would be far more efficient at driving electric motors directly rather than converting water to hydrogen to then be burned in an internal combustion engine (ICE). As for the on-board electrical generator, you would need to run the generator's engine with a conventional fuel to generate electricity to create hydrogen to then be burned in the drive engine.

One of the big problems (opportunities for solution) with hydrogen is fuel storage and there is a lot research being done now with fuel cells which convert hydrogen directly to electricity. Fuel cells are generally more efficient than ICEs and you can really think of them as the holy grail of alternative fuels. Fuel cells have been around for a long time and an important early use for them was powering spacecraft. The US Department of Energy has a web site devoted to hydrogen technology and you can read more about it here:

http://www.eere.energy.gov/hydrogenandfuelcells/

Frank

I was just checking some of the postings on Eng-Tips and came across a topic on Hydrogen Power that you might find it interesting. Have a look:

http://www.eng-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=110077

Frank

I'm replying to this thread out of pure nostalgia as it just shows how far we've come in just 5 short years. When this first post was written, there were no Honda FCX Clarity's been leased, no Chevy Equinox Fuel Cell vehicles being tested by members of Project Driveway and no H2 Mobility plan in Germany to commercialize hydrogen fuel cell vehicles by 2015.