why Hydrogen Fuel Cell Sucks?

Here are answers for "why Hydrogen fuel cell sucks?" Question:

Creating Hydrogen for Fuel stations Through Electrolysis Requires lot of Energy since Water have More Oxygen Than Hydrogen
Hydrogen Are More Expensive than Other Kind of Fuels
Burning Hydrogen With Oxygen from Air is quite Inefficient
often in many Hydrogen cars water are simply exhausted instead recycled, saving Hydrogen Fuel

That's it!

I hate to say this but your theory is flawed, based on the fact that there is actually more hydrogen than oxygen.

H2O stands for dihydrogen oxide which means two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom.

I also believe that electrolysis machines can actually separate the hydrogen from the oxygen making fuel cells quite efficient.

Actually, it takes only a small voltage (2.5V) to disassociate Hydrogen from Oxygen. If they are collected separately you have an H,H,O, if not you pretty much have Brown's gas. It's quite simple actually. When H,H,O is combusted it creates water vapor, which exits the system as such.
While I agree that commercial systems suck, most people can actually build much more functional systems quite inexpensively.
But, when creating water in a combustion engine, please, ceramic coat your piston heads.


edit for flawed logic

[edit on 2009/12/30 by EliyahuHaNave]

Why make hydrogen fuel cells in the first place.
You have to basically start from scratch. new fueling stations, high pressure tanker trucks, high pressure rail cars,

There are many better fuel to run fuel cells on like Direct Methanol Fuel Cells.
There are hydrocarbon fuels for fuel cells, including diesel, methanol methane, type fuel cells.

There is also research being done on a synthetic liquid fuel produced by a cobalt-based Fischer-Tropsch process for use in fuel cells.
Butanol is a pure alcohol with an energy content similar to that of gasoline. It does not have to be stored in high pressure vessels like natural gas, and can be but does not have to be blended (10 to 100 percent) with any fossil fuel. Butanol can also be transported through existing pipelines for distribution. Butanol can help solve the hydrogen distribution infrastructure problems faced with fuel cell development. The employment of fuel-cell technology is held up by the safety issues associated with hydrogen distribution, but butanol can be very easily reformed for its hydrogen content and can be distributed through existing gas stations in the purity required for either fuel cells or vehicles. Butanol can be made in large amounts using the Fischer-Tropsch process and using trash, sewage, waste organics, hazardous waste as a feed stock it would eliminate 90% of the land fills in the US
www.osti.gov...
sciencelinks.jp...

All these liquid fuels could be pumped with standard gas station pumps and do not need high pressure tanks like hydrogen.
and do not use large amounts of electricity needed to produce pure hydrogen.

they work, so why bother playing with something if you dont know it works, I mean what cheaper fuel is there than water?

Others all ready caught it and are correct, Fuel Cells don't "burn" the H, there is no combustion.

The problem with Fuel Cells, PEM fuel cells in particular, is, and shall continue to be, the raw material cost of the nafion membranes, which eventually wear out and need replacing, to the tune of 10's of thousands of dollars for a "residential" or "auto" sized fuel cell stack.

There's very few sources *cough, DuPont Cough* for the nafion, which is VERY proprietary, and they are VERY proud of it. Until there's more competition regarding the membrane material, or a better way to make fuel cells is invented, it will continue to be this way.

I helped design fuel cell plates, stacks, and systems in a previous life, and this is how I know what I know.

reply to post by tjack


What about Browns Gas? As I read on the internet is seems to be a very easy matter to produce it and it is used as a combustible. I have not found any DuPont patents associated with it.

After reading about it for awhile I have to wonder why all our cars are not already running on Browns Gas?

reply to post by masonicon

OP --

The current methods of electrolysis for collecting hydrogen may be inefficient (which is true, even though your reasons are flawed)...

...HOWEVER, the problem then isn't with hydrogen fuel cells but rather with the methods for collecting hydrogen.

If we ignore the inefficiency of electrolysis for a moment, you are still forgetting on important aspect of hydrogen fuel sells...the byproduct of burning hydrogen is water (i.e., the exhaust). The method of collecting hydrogen PLUS the burning of the hydrogen together equal far less pollution.

[edit on 12/30/2009 by Soylent Green Is People]

Originally posted by Soylent Green Is People
reply to post by masonicon

 

OP --

The current methods of electrolysis for collecting hydrogen may be inefficient (which is true, even though your reasons are flawed)...

...HOWEVER, the problem then isn't with hydrogen fuel cells but rather with the methods for collecting hydrogen.

If we ignore the inefficiency of electrolysis for a moment, you are still forgetting on important aspect of hydrogen fuel sells...the byproduct of burning hydrogen is water (i.e., the exhaust). The method of collecting hydrogen PLUS the burning of the hydrogen together equal far less pollution.

[edit on 12/30/2009 by Soylent Green Is People]

So the Water Fuel Cell are just another method of Collecting Hydrogen that far more efficient than Current Methods

reply to post by masonicon


your right. its ineffective. not to mention hydrogen is kind of... well look at the Hindenburg... or w/e the name of that blimp was called (spell check messed that one up big time)

free energy is with magnets, or some kind of fission/fusion tech we have not got our dirty little monkey paws on.

im pretty sure we'd destroy ourselves with senseless wars of aggression before we hit that pinnacle in human history.

[edit on 5/10/2010 by ugie1028]

You can power a hydrogen refueling station with solar power, so you don't have to drain energy from the grid. Honda has a prototype, as do some other companies. Ideally, you can just drive up to a fueling station, which is constantly creating hydrogen during the day using water and solar power to drive the electrolysis process. Also, the plan is that people will have these at home, too, so you can refuel there as needed.

Hydrogen fuel cells are extremely safe, much more safe than gasoline. I think it really is the future.

[edit on 5/10/2010 by LifeInDeath]