The recent rise in gasoline prices have given people more reason to look for alternative means of transportation. The rising cost of using gas may have motivated a lot of people to clamor for an alternative form of transportation that would help usher in an age where humans no longer have to depend a lot on a so-called Oil Economy.
And with the move to look for alternative sources of transportation, many researchers have begun looking into other forms of alternative fuels in order to run future vehicles. One of the most attractive and in fact the most appealing concept provided is the use of hydrogen to run cars. It would only be time before hydrogen cars would be used as the primary transport in the streets. Btu what exactly is it?
A hydrogen car is a relatively new type of transport vehicle that uses hydrogen as its primary on-board fuel. The hydrogen car is different from conventional vehicles in that it uses a different type of engine to make the vehicle move. There are two ways that this can be made possible.
There is one type of hydrogen car can be powered by the burning of hydrogen fuel, much like what happens with a gasoline engine. The hydrogen engine is actually a modified version of the traditional gasoline internal combustion engine. The process used in running both may generally be the same- the force of burning hydrogen provides the explosive power that makes the engine produce mechanical power to make the car move.
A noticeable benefit that a hydrogen powered vehicle provides is that it makes use of a cleaner fuel source for power. This means that using hydrogen as fuel allows lesser polluting substances and chemicals being emitted into the atmosphere. In fact, the hydrogen car concept has been realized because researchers have been looking for a cleaner alternative fuel to be used in the future to replace crude oil. And apparently, hydrogen fits the bill quite nicely.
Another type of hydrogen car being develop today makes use of the hydrogen fuel cell for power instead of a specialized internal combustion engine. In this set-up, the hydrogen is used to provide and generate electrical power that can be used to run the car’s electric motor. This way emissions are totally avoided unlike a car using an internal combustion engine (ICE) running on hydrogen.
Although the use of hydrogen fuel cells is being eyed to have the best potential to power hydrogen cars of the future, the plan may still face certain obstacles. One, hydrogen fuel cells are too expensive to produce using current technology. Not only that, hydrogen fuel cells also tend to be very fragile and sensitive to vibrations and sudden movements. Engineers today are still trying to come up with a design and develop a type of hydrogen fuel cell that can be strong enough to withstand the vibrations frequent bumps that normally comes with traveling by car. And at the same time, there would be a need for a better and more affordable technology to build the hydrogen fuel cells to make them more affordable to consumers.
But despite the challenges still posed on the development of the hydrogen car, its future still remains very bright. What especially makes hydrogen cars so attractive is that hydrogen is a renewable energy resource. This is unlike fossil fuels which will run out sooner or later and may cause even more serious rise in gasoline prices. The hydrogen car proves to be a more logical alternative to a world looking for a means to move away from too much dependence on fossil fuel.
