Who Said Cars Can’t Run On Water?
But if you’re lucky enough to drive one of those futuristic cars that will currently run on liquid hydrogen, as is the case with BMW models, you also will be thinking of the day you can just pour in some H2O and the system will turn water into hydrogen, leaving only water as a byproduct – with zero pollution.
The day of strictly green cars is coming, believe me. But that day is being slowed by oil and gas moguls who don’t want to see their fossil fuel industry implode. What influence these large oil producers like Shell, Mobile, American Oil, British Petroleum and others exert on progress is the untold story. Somewhere in dark, private offices, negotiations are surely going on to delay the coming of this marvelous advance as far into the future as possible.
It took seventy-five years to get telephones in every home across the U.S. But it only took five years for the Internet to flood the world. Judging by that, once it hits, watch out! People won’t want anything else. If you still own a gas-guzzler, better park it in the back of your garage and roll it out once or twice a year to shine it up or to drive in an historical parade. You won’t want to waste the money on gas-pump fuel, if, indeed, any gas stations are still around.
Before the hydrogen car can become a reality, big business must stop dragging their feet. Wall Street magnates wouldn’t call them bribes, because that’s what they are. Money or investment is being dropped into auto manufacturers like BMW, GM, Ford, Toyota, and Honda to dissuade them from doing too much too soon.
But governments are picking up the slack to speed things along. President Obama recently “gave” Al Gore $500 million to help push along his proposed $80,000 car that will be built in Finland in Detroit.
President Bush appropriated some $2 billion in hydrogen highway research. Before the big recession hit, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was pushing to get 200 hydrogen filling stations built by 2010 stretching from Vancouver, British Columbia, all the way down to Baja, California. Since Californians buy one-fifth of the nation's cars, the new hydrogen car technology could simply replace the current gasoline engine.
When you drive one of these prototypes you don’t really feel any different than driving an all gas-driven vehicle, according to those who have driven them including Jay Leno.
The motor, drive train, air conditioning, wheel system, and other things about the car are the same. But in twenty years, when we’re converting water into hydrogen fuel, we will notice the difference:
· There won’t be any appreciable pollution, just water sprayed out the back end of the car.
· Car efficiency will probably be ten times as great as it is today, costing you, the public, much less or close to nothing to operate this car. Of course, this is the utopia we all dream about, but that kind of result may not be here even in twenty years. After it does arrive, it will take a lot more time to perfect the systems.
But Hydrogen cars are not only in the future, they are here. When hydrogen cars become the status quo, the U. S. can lessen its dependence upon foreign oil, achieve lower prices at the fuel pumps and cut down on the greenhouse gases that allegedly produce global warming. The future of hydrogen cars is not a pipe dream, as there are already many hydrogen cars on the road. California and Japan have many hydrogen cars being used as fleet vehicles now.Hydrogen Generator Plan for CARS Insider Information Revealed on this controversial new Hydrogen Boosting Method Advocates say Increases Gas Mileage and Reduces Emissions. Homemade Wind and Solar Power Reduce Home Energy Bills by 80-percent with Renewables. |  Honda FCX Hydrogen Car |
For the past 28 years, the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) has been conducting research on hydrogen fuel cells for use in transportation, industry and residential use. According to the LANL, "Hydrogen & Fuel Cell Research at Los Alamos has made significant technological advances in Polymer Electrolyte Membrane (PEM) fuel cells, Direct Methanol Fuel Cells (DMFC), and related technologies such as the electrolyzer (a fuel cell in reverse, liberating hydrogen from electricity and pure water)."
Unlike many of the hybrid and "green" cars currently on the market, hydrogen cars offer the promise of zero emission technology, where the only byproduct from the cars is water vapor. Current fossil-fuel burning vehicles emit all sorts of pollutants such as carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrous oxide, ozone and microscopic particulate matter. Hybrids and other green cars address these issues to a large extent but only hydrogen cars hold the promise of zero emission of pollutants. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that fossil-fuel automobiles emit one-point-five billion tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere each year and going to hydrogen-based transportation would all but eliminate this.
Not only that, hydrogen cars will lessen the United States' dependence upon foreign oil. The so-called "hydrogen highway" will mean less dependence upon OPEC, the big U. S. oil companies, oil refinery malfunctions and breakdowns and less resistance from oil-selling nations like Venezuela and Saudi Arabia or from hostile nations who would rather sell elsewhere. Consumers will finally get a break from the never-ending rising prices at the gasoline pumps.
The BMW prototype car has gas and/or hydrogen running capability. Dual-fuel automotive systems are being tested that can run on either gasoline or hydrogen as the hydrogen infrastructure is being developed. The conversion from gasoline-powered internal combustion engines to hydrogen powered combustion engines is agreed upon by most scientists and engineers to be a particularly easy transition and would buy time for hydrogen fuel cell cars to be fully adapted.
But, hydrogen cars are not isolated to those that burn the fuel in internal combustion engines. There are more hydrogen fuel cell cars being built currently than any other innovation. Let's also not forget about hydrogen-on-demand vehicles that are either using a hydrogen compound or electrolyzing water to create hydrogen, avoiding the compressed or liquid hydrogen refueling scenario altogether. And, what about adapting hydrogen peroxide for fuel in car since it is currently being used in racecars and jet packs as a propellant?
With Germany, Japan, Norway and the U. S. in the hunt, the hydrogen economy is just around the bend. You have to wonder about Russia, however. They are basing their entire futures on a heavy pollution oil production culture, oil pipelines, and gas guzzling cars. However, America is on the right side of history.
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