• Question: Why's the car industry taken up electricity as a fuel when hydrogen fuel was founded a while ago yet it is still not mainstream like electric/petrol/diesel?

    Asked by Euan to Anna, James, Joe, Leonie, Olivia on 13 Mar 2015.
    • Photo: Joe Spencer

      Joe Spencer answered on 13 Mar 2015:

      Hi 433dysb48
      Electricity is useful as we have electric motors that drive cars. But in actual fact there do exist engines that use hydrogen and infact in future it’s likely we’ll use them. Hydrogen fuel cells convert the gases hydrogen and oxygen to water and generate electricity in the process to power electric motors. The real difficulty is being able to store the hydrogen, but that’s where scientists come in and try and come up with solutions to this. But you can by a toy car fuel cell from sciencey shops or online that shows the principle
      http://www.amazon.co.uk/Experiment-kit-Horizon-Fuel-Cell/dp/B000Z9C8O2

    • Photo: Olivia Lynes

      Olivia Lynes answered on 13 Mar 2015:

      Hydrogen fuel is very dangerous and we haven’t figured out how to transport it in a way that it can be used efficiently. It’s also a gas not a liquid, so we would have to condense it, which mean it would need a special storage tank on a car or a house. This storage tank would also never have to leak or break, because hydrogen ignites very quickly if it comes into contact with a spark causing a massive explosion.

      Our hydrogen to energy conversions are also about half what the petrol/electric to energy conversions are, so we need a lot more hydrogen to do the same job as petrol, and even more of it would need to be condensed in the magic tanks which can never break.

    • Photo: James Pope

      James Pope answered on 13 Mar 2015:

      Hi 433dysb48,

      All I can add to Joe and Leonie’s answers are that at present, we have been unable to develop hydrogen fuel cells or batteries that can rival petrol/diesel in terms of distance travelled on a full tank/charge/load and the cost of the fuel for distance travelled.

      But scientists do keep working on these things and I think in California they have some very progressive laws on enabling people to use hydrogen powered cars, because they have concerns about the pollution from cars causing dangerous smogs in cities like LA.

    • Photo: Leonie Oostwoud Wijdenes

      Leonie Oostwoud Wijdenes answered on 17 Mar 2015:

      Thanks James, but it was Olivia who could answer this question. I didn’t know about the transport problems with hydrogen.

Comments

  • Photo: Euan

    Euan commented on :

    Thanks for your answers it’s really helpful, do you think that Hydrogen could be more diluted so it’s more safe in some way? And could they combine an electric charger with a fuel cell engine

    • Photo: Olivia

      Olivia commented on :

      You can’t dilute hydrogen, it’s a gas so you’re stuck with it as it is. The only way to deal with it is to condense it- so make it into a liquid which has to be done at really high pressure. Its explosive properties are due to how it’s electrons are arranged and there isn’t a way to get around that unfortunately. Hybrid cars that are already on the market combine a fuel engine with an electric engine, the fuel engine gets the car going and as it goes along the cars movement charges the electrical engine.

  • Photo: Euan

    Euan commented on :

    Hi sorry I meant a fuel cell engine not a standard petrol/diesel engine. Sorry!

    also im interested in a job in science or health preferably neurology what would you suggest would be the best route for me to take if I wish to make it there?