When will Hydrogen fuel cell cars running on water become available in commercial Market ?
6 Answers
- 8 months agoFavorite Answer
Cars cannot run on water. Water can be split into hydrogen and oxygen but that takes a lot of energy. The hydrogen generated can be used to power an automobile. This method has a distinct advantage of traditional hydrogen fuel cells because you only have a small amount of hydrogen on board at any time. But you still need a secondary power supply to create the hydrogen.
- FLv 78 months ago
We seem to be going down the li ion battery route . When the range exceeds the practical distance you can drive in a day , or you can recharge in the same time as refuelling, batteries are as convenient as petrol. The best are about halfway there.
Running an ICE on compressed hydrogen is a relatively small step and produces only water but the energy to make hydrogen from water in the first place has to come from somewhere, so in that basis it is no more efficient than battery power.
This may be a lost opportunity similar to the lack of development of electric cars which were first made in 1900s.
- Anonymous8 months ago
Absolutely never.
- rickLv 78 months ago
I'm just guessing, but when BP, and Exon get the water monopoly, and raise the price to around $4.00 a gallon, it will happen.
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- skeptikLv 78 months ago
Probably never.
Hydrogen fuel cells are in effect chemical batteries. They produce electricity which is used to run an electric motor.
Producing hydrogen from water takes electricity. Because of the laws of thermodynamics, we know that it takes more electricity to produce the hydrogen than we can ever get back from the fuel cell.
If you have enough electricity to produce hydrogen, you already have enough electricity to power the car.
The only reason to have this kind of multi-stage system would be if the electricity comes from something like solar cells, and you're using water and a hydrogen fuel cell instead of a traditional battery to store that solar electricity. Unless the combined weight of all the stages is less than with batteries, it would only waste energy.
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That's not to say that you couldn't do it. It's just that it's a losing proposition for anything commercial.