Hydro Assist Fuel Cell

[Guest Greg Ross]

Now stop and think about this for a moment;

Take crude oil, input the energy required to run it thru a refinery and consider the amount of energy available after refining!

Output is not constrained by input where captive energy is concerned!

From everything I read "Browns' Gas" is at this point nothing more then a hoax. When the scientists discover the effecient mode of releasing/ breaking the Hydrogen/ Oxygen molecular bond we'll have our replacement for hydrocarbon based energy, maybe

[Guest TommyH]

The problem with swithcing to a drasticly difference fuel source for our cars and trucks in the infactructure. what does one do with the 100+ years of cars trucks vans ans SUVs? They cannot be converted to run on H2(hydrogen) It would require a MAJOR investment among automakers, and fuel supply companies to build and support H2 fueling stations, and the cars needed to utilize them. If that was not a problem, we would have H2 cars already.

[Guest Jack91]

Why is hydrogen seen as a more viable energy source than wind or solar?

Email|Print|Single Page| Text size – + April 7, 2008

The idea that hydrogen is a source of energy is really a bit misleading. One doesn't find free hydrogen lying around that we can burn to get energy. Essentially all the hydrogen on this planet is bound up with other elements.

more stories like this

How much energy does 5 grams of hydrogen produce?

Do bugs breathe? Do they use oxygen at all?

Northeastern officials investigate swastika graffiti

Do fish drink water? Are there any animals that don't need to drink any?

What exactly is a dust explosion, and should I worry about house dust?

When hydrogen atoms bond to other elements (for example, when two hydrogen atoms bind to an oxygen atom to make water), energy is released. To get the hydrogen back out, energy has to be put in, and that energy has to come from somewhere. For example, an electrical current can split water into hydrogen and oxygen, but energy is needed to make that electricity. It might come from nuclear, solar, wind, geothermal, or whatever, but it has to come from somewhere.

It would really be better to think of hydrogen as a means for storing and transporting energy than as a source per se. For example, if you have a generating station you could use the electricity locally to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen you stored up could be burned at any time in the future to provide energy, and that burning could happen anywhere you shipped the hydrogen to. That said, you would never get any more energy out of burning the hydrogen than it cost you to make it in the first place.

There is an exception to the above argument, and that's if you use hydrogen in fusion. In this case you push hydrogen atoms together to make helium plus a lot more energy than you used to get the hydrogen in the first place. This is not easy to accomplish. The sun does it, and so do hydrogen bombs, but we don't really know how to make it go at a nice rate for commercial applications - yet!

Dr. Knowledge is written by physicists Stephen Reucroft and John Swain, both of Northeastern University. E-mail questions to drknowledge@globe.com or write Dr. Knowledge, c/o The Boston Globe, PO Box 55819, Boston, MA 02205-5819.

© Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper Company.

[Guest imported_dantm4]

I wish I could actually find the link, but BMW built a hydrogen-assist gasoline powered car that got 30% better fuel mileage. They didn't use water to get the hydrogen - but by that thinking you could use hydrogen to help increase your mileage. I think they stripped the hydrogen atom from the fuel and fed it back in the engine. It's supposed to get rid of carbon deposits as well - so if anyone has tried this or wants to try this, let us know, I didn't actually read the whole posting before posting myself, but I've been thinking of trying it myself. Just haven't had the time, or the money.