Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicle The newly invented hydrogen car is a vehicle that uses hydrogen as its main source of fuel. These cars convert the chemical energy of hydrogen to mechanical energy either by burning the hydrogen in an internal combustion engine or by reacting the hydrogen with oxygen in a fuel cell to run the electric motors. Even though hydrogen fuel is not naturally on Earth and is not an energy source, it is still an energy carrier. Figure 1. Hydrogen Fuel Cell Car In the periodic table, hydrogen is found to be the first element with the symbol H, with an atomic number of 1. The atomic mass unit of hydrogen is 1.01 atomic mass units. Hydrogen is currently found to be the world's lightest element and also the world's most abundant chemical substance. At room temperature, hydrogen is a colourless gas. Hydrogen is also odourless, tasteless and a non-toxic gas. It takes is place as being a part of one of the many non-metallic elements. Atomic hydrogen is rarely found on Earth as hydrogen naturally forms covalent compounds with most non-metallic elements and is also readily formed in the water molecule in most organic compounds. The creation of one molecule of water is shown by the following equation: 2H2 + O2 = 2H2O BMW was the first company to introduce hydrogen cars. Hydrogen was burned in place of the gasoline in their hydrogen combustion cars. In early March of 2013, Hyundai launched the first hydrogen fuel cell car. There is a fuel cell inside the car that converts hydrogen to electricity that is able to power the electric motors. Both of these models of hydrogen cars work
just as well in the environmentally friendly perspective as the only emission is water vapour for both styles. These cars only need to fueled once in awhile. A hydrogen fuel cell works by converting hydrogen to electricity inside the cell, where there is an anode and a cathode that is separated by a polymer membrane. The hydrogen splits into protons and electrons at the anode; they become hydrogen ions. The polymer membrane allows the protons to pass and leaves the electrons to flow through a battery that leads to an electric motor. The hydrogen protons and electrons meet up at the cathode and combine with the oxygen in the atmosphere to form water. For the car to run for long periods at a time, there are tanks located on the vehicle that store heavily compressed hydrogen. Figure 2. Diagram of a Hydrogen Fuel Cell Figure 3. Diagram of a Hydrogen Fuel Cell Car
An intended consequence of the hydrogen car is that the tanks holding the compressed hydrogen may explode. Due to this fact, these hydrogen powered vehicles are built with strong heavy duty compression tanks to reduce the probability of the occurrence. This new type of vehicle is much safer than a gasoline powered vehicle because if the tanks holding the compressed hydrogen ever falters, the hydrogen will just be released into the atmosphere unlike gasoline that will pool on the ground. Figure 4. Compressed Hydrogen Tank and Motor The hydrogen car has changed technology in the past as it is now a more efficient and environmentally friendly method of transportation. It has also met the societal needs of vehicle owners will not need to go to the gas stations and spend loads of money every few days to refuel their cars, they just need to mainly take some time off on some nights to fuel their cars in their own garage and not need to spend money on as much fuel as hydrogen is their main source of energy. It also meets the need of reducing the amount of pollution vehicles are creating each day. These hydrogen cars are more environmentally friendly as they only emit water vapour, unlike most cars that release harmful carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Also, this fuel cell powered car is able to travel much longer distances than even battery-powered cars before needing to be refueled which is a great improvement to our world's technology. As fuel cells are able to be more readily used in large vehicles such as trucks and SUVs, these hydrogen cars are much more beneficial to our lifestyles. An unintended consequence of the hydrogen fuel cell cars is that the hydrogen is produced using coal, nuclear power, oil or natural gas which has been found to still release some pollution such as carbon dioxide to the environment. Although the amount of pollution during the time that the car is functioning is reduced compared to that of burning gasoline, the production of the fuel cell itself creates pollution that still somewhat has a negative effect of the environment. A way to change this consequence for the environment is to use wind power and solar power to promote the process of electrolysis. The electrolysis process uses water to
produce hydrogen by separating it from the oxygen element. This method will reduce the amount of pollution, but the drawback of it is that it can be quite costly to implement. Another unintended consequence is that the motors that are required for the hydrogen fuel cell cars to work is copper, which is quite limited to manufacture in mass production. A solution to this problem has been to use aluminum, but it takes quite a bit of space inside the motor, making the car bulky as a result. I feel that the integration of this new technology in society will be very beneficial to our lives and our environment. The less pollution in the air, the cleaner the air that we breathe in will be. This will allow for a healthier life. I feel that the world's technological development in cars have greatly improved our lifestyles over the last decade. As more and more cars are produced each year, our ecological footprint becomes deeper imprinted, but to see such an improvement in how our technology is finding ways to reduce the impact on the environment, I feel glad to see this development. These cars will change the future by reducing the ecological footprint caused by the pollution from vehicles. These hydrogen fuel cell cars are part of the solution to global warming. These cars will reduce the amount of thinning of the atmosphere caused by car pollution each year. Figure 5. Reducing the Ecological Footprint Caused by Carbon Dioxide Emissions
References McDonald, A. (2010). The Open-Source Hydrogen Car Set to Change the Industry. Retrieved March 22, 2013. From: http://www.theecologist.org/news/news_analysis/401026/the_opensource_hydrogen_car_set_to _change_the_industry.html Unknown Author. (n.d.) Hydrogen Fuel. Retrieved March 25, 2013. From: http://www.alternative-energy-news.info/technology/hydrogen-fuel/ Koebler, J. (2013) Hyundai Becomes the First Company to Mass Produce Hydrogen Fuel Cell Cars. Retrieved March 27, 2013. From: http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/02/26/hyundai-becomes-first-company-to-massproduce-hydrogen-fuel-cell-cars Hydrogen Fuel Cell. [Online Photograph]. Retrieved March 28, 2013. From: https://www.google.ca/search/hydrogen+fuel+cell+diagram Diagram of Hydrogen Fuel Cell Car. [Online Photograph]. Retrieved March 28, 2013. From: http://cafr1.com/hydrogen.html Fuel Cars. [Online Photograph]. Retrieved April 3, 2013. From: https://www.google.ca/search/hydrogen+fuel+tank+car&oq=hydrogen+fuel+tank+car Ecological Footprint. [Online Photograph]. Retrieved April 3, 2013. From: https://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q=hydrogen+fuel+cell+car+tank/ecological+footprint&oq =ecological+footprint