What ever happened to hydrogen powered cars?
ROFLsaucer asked:
In 2007 and 2008 there was all this news and now nothing.
In know Honda and Chevy where planning on making one and i believe BMW actually made one.
Its seems like there focus now is hybrids.
I was planning on holding off on buying a new car until they were released but it looks like hydrogen cars aren’t coming any time soon.
Will hydrogen fuel cell cars ever come?
http://www.businessbrokersguide.com/blog/
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In 2007 and 2008 there was all this news and now nothing.
In know Honda and Chevy where planning on making one and i believe BMW actually made one.
Its seems like there focus now is hybrids.
I was planning on holding off on buying a new car until they were released but it looks like hydrogen cars aren’t coming any time soon.
Will hydrogen fuel cell cars ever come?
http://www.businessbrokersguide.com/blog/
August 27th, 2009 at 2:29 am
They’re here. GM and Honda (FCX) have cars made, but they’re only trying them out in a few cities through a leasing program. Probably because the car’s range is short, and you need hydrogen fill stations nearby.
They’re still working on durability, reliability and efficiency/range
August 27th, 2009 at 8:23 pm
Read the Sandia National Labs article on their Sunlight to Petrol program carefully. They started by investigating better ways to produce hydrogen from H2O and concluded that it’s better to continue the process and produce liquid hydrocarbon fuels from CO2 and H2O such that the synthetic fuel could be distributed by existing infrastructure and used in existing vehicles.
If the purpose of a hydrogen car is to take energy from clean sources like solar power, store it chemically as hydrogen and use it in hydrogen vehicles for transportation then you are better off taking energy from clean sources, storing it as synthetic gasoline/diesel and using it in existing gasoline/diesel vehicles.
Synthetic fuels burn cleanly and the CO2 emission are just the CO2 used to make the synthetic fuels in the first place so does not add to the atmosphere’s CO2 levels. It’s actually possible to remove CO2 from the atmosphere by using synthetic gasoline/diesel synthesized from biomass.
It would be more harmful to the environment to promote hydrogen vehicles when you can achieve the same environmental benefits with existing vehicles just by changing how we make gasoline and diesel. It’s not the actual gasoline/diesel that’s bad, just the fact that we refine them from fossil resources.
The holy grail of fuel cells is to find materials that work with liquid hydrocarbon fuels and nitrogen/oxygen/CO2 air instead of pure hydrogen and pure oxygen like our current fuel cells.
If you do buy a hydrogen fuel cell car, you may be slowing down the damage to the environment but you’re also removing an opportunity to reverse the damage as well as promoting the construction of new infrastructure and the manufacture of new vehicles both of which harms the environment.
August 28th, 2009 at 9:07 pm
Hydrogen and fuel cell cars were the “suggestion” to the California Air Resources Board around the time of their infamous 2003 meeting when they pulled the plug on electric cars and their zero emissions mandate. They were going to allow “hydrogen cars” to fill the void left by the crushed electric cars. Around the same time you had a US “oil” president “announcing” his hydrogen car initiative and funding.
Perhaps I have a suspicious nature, but between cars being crushed and concurrent “announcements” of alternatives it seems that hydrogen vehicles were mainly a smokescreen to keep petrochemical companies in business and the country away from electric vehicles.
Since that time it has been shown that hydrogen cars are not particularly economical. If hydrogen is produced from electrolysis then it is only a storage medium and it is more efficient to use electricity in vehicles directly. If obtained from natural gas it is better to use the natural gas directly.
Hydrogen is also a difficult and dangerous substance to store. Leaks easily developed, hard to detect and if a leak catches fire it is extremely difficult to see as most of the light is in the ultraviolet spectrum. Now a new president has reduced funding for hydrogen cars.
With electric vehicles showing more promise, the “oil” president gone, hydrogen shown to be less economical and funding reduced it is less likely that any rapid advancements will be made.
This said there are a few prototypes around the country.
Perhaps a better investment, depending upon where you live, might be stationary solar panels and an all electric vehicle. Here is one owner who uses PV to power his Tesla Roadster from the sun for about 72 miles a day. It is an interesting read:
August 29th, 2009 at 7:45 am
It seemed that manufacturers concentrate more on hybrids these days.Yes, a year ago, I’ve read about a hydrogen powered Chevrolet Equinox.It was just a prototype and there seem to be no plans in doing it.As for Honda, they’re been renting out some FCX Claritys for around $600 a month.And yes, BMW made a hydrogen powered car but its just a prototype.Mercedes is also making out a hydrogen powered vehicle.The possible reason why hydrogen cars are not yet planned to be made is probably because hybrids passes the 30mpg limit as well as small diesel engines.
September 1st, 2009 at 9:38 am
Hydrogen-powered cars do not pollute the environment and help against global warming to some extent. We need to make sure we consider all means to help work against global warming and spread awareness on the environment. Visit to see how much our fresh water reserve levels have dropped since 2006.
September 4th, 2009 at 9:56 am
they died and went to heaven
;l
September 5th, 2009 at 3:40 pm
the focus right now is on hybrids, but honda does have a hydrogen powered car on the market. but understand that there are only a total of 6000 alternative fuel refueling stations in the US right now, and of those only a small percentage have hydrogen fuel. i think hydrogen powered cars will be a part of the future transportation scene, but likely not in very large numbers. they will be a niche market car, meaning that there will be enough to make it economically viable to have refueling stations around the country that handle hydrogen, but you wont see large fleets of hydrogen powered cars.
September 8th, 2009 at 9:09 am
hydrogen is not a fuel. there is not one molecule of H2 gas on earth that is not man made. The process to make H2 is inefficient and not worth the effort.
There will never be a H2 car. The Honda is fueled by burning natural gas, so in reality, the Honda is a natural gas car with a H2 tank and a fuel cell. It pollutes just as bad as any car except that pollution comes out a stack at your house and not the cars tail pipe.
September 11th, 2009 at 5:30 pm
Honda , last year, released their first Hydrogen car (FCX Clarity).
“The FCX Clarity is a next-generation, zero-emissions, hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicle based on the entirely-new Honda V Flow fuel cell platform, and powered by the highly compact, efficient and powerful Honda V Flow fuel cell stack.”
It definitely has potential for “future car technology”. In fact Honda just gave the first Individual Customer from Las Angeles a 2 year lease on the FCX.
I built my first hydrogen cell about 5 years ago and now currently run 2 trucks, my home hot water heater, home stove and home generator on hydrogen and offer a step by step DIY guide to walk anyone interested threw the process. You can find it at www agua-luna com or you can email me.
Let me start off by saying Hydrogen is a great option for the concept of free energy. I built my first hydrogen cell about 5 years ago. Have converted over 50 vehicles in the last 10 years (hydrogen and EV) and now currently run 2 trucks (and another EV), my home hot water heater, home stove and home generator on hydrogen for free with caught rain water and the help of a $10 solar panel. I offer a step by step DIY guide to walk anyone interested threw the process. You can find it at www agua-luna com or you can email me.
There are basically 3 safe ways to make and use it… chemically, electrically and molecularly, the first 2 being easier so I’ll only discuss them here. The fallowing steps were taking directly out of a DIY guide I offer to those who would like to run their vehicles or home on hydrogen safely. The entire guide is available at www agua-luna com
On demand h2 generators are a bit different from the Hollywood versions like seen Chain Reaction with Keanu Reeves, that tend to explode violently every time a film is being made. However when used in an on-demand system there is no storage of hydrogen and oxygen in its gas form, only liquid (water) and is only transformed into gas “on-demand” in small cylinder size amounts. It’s actually safer then gasoline as it doesn’t evaporate, creating explosive fumes in the tank like gas. the following were actually taken out of my $5 guide available at www agua-luna com
Chemically
1. You’ll need a 6inch x 1ft schedule 40 pvc pipe. With pvc cement glue a cap on the bottom and use a screw on cap for the top. Drill a small hole (1/4inch or so) in the side close to the top, screwing in a small copper shut off valve. Place a few feet of stranded (food grade is good) flex hose to the valve and into the air intake of your engine (carburetor or fuel injections).
2. Now crunch up a couple aluminum cans (beer cans, soda cans etc) and drop them into the pvc pipe, along with a couple cups of lye (Red Devil drain opener has lye in it, some Clorox and Drano’s do to).
3. Then simply add water, screw on the top and wait a few minutes.
What happens in simplicity is that aluminum and lye don’t really get along so they battle, and as always the innocent civilians (water H2O) that the most casualties, by giving up its hydrogen and oxygen. This then builds up in the void of the pipe and is ready to be vented into your engine, by opening the valve. You may need to start your engine on gas then switch it off after the hydrogen starts burning.
Electrical is a bit easier then Chemically.
1. Simply take a small solar panel 1.5 amps is what I use ($9 at harborfreight.com), connect the 2 wires from the panel +- to 2 conductors (carbon cores of batteries work well, just be careful removing it from the jacket), but any conductive material will work ie. Copper, aluminum, steel, etc.
2. Drop the wires into a water tank (I use 55gal drums), make sure they don’t touch each other.
3. Drill a small hole (1/4inch or so) in the side close to the top, screwing in a small copper shut off valve. Place a few feet of stranded (food grade is good) flex hose to the valve and into the air intake of your engine (carburetor or fuel injections).
4. Then simply add water, screw on the top cap and wait.
After a few hours tiny bubbles will form and rise off one conductor (that’s hydrogen) and even smaller bubbles that just looks like foam will rise off the other (oxygen). I don’t remember which likes the positive and which likes the neg hydrogen or the oxygen.
The third method is more complicated and is what I use for my vehicles. It’s just a modified Joe’s Cell, there’s a step by step DIY guide available to walk you threw the process here www agua-luna com
It also covers the other 2 methods described in more detail.
www agua-luna com
Hope this helped, feel free to contact me personally if you have any questions if you’d l
September 13th, 2009 at 4:19 am
The are not cost effective at this time. Without having most of electricity gennerated by alternative energy, theer really is no point.
There is no abundant natural source of hydrogen fuel, It has to be made from natural gas, or by electrolysis using electricity.
So for the most part, we use hydrogen like a battery, for energy storage.
Half of the electricty in the United States is generated by coal. So, like an electric car, it would be mostly powered by fossil fuels at this time.
September 14th, 2009 at 3:41 am
Instead of waiting for industry to do this, just build your own hydrogen electrolyzer, usually called an HHO or Brown Gas generator.
install it in your car and go for it.
For More info, watch the JohnAarons hydrogen videos (#83, especially ) on YouTube,
Where you’ll gain some efficiencies in all this process is if you can run the generator off batteries instead of your alternator, and charge the batteries with PV solar power.
September 17th, 2009 at 5:13 am
We’re still waiting for the first Texas wildcatter to successfully drill a hydrogen well. Until that happens, it’s probably best not to start mass-producing cars which require a fuel that doesn’t exist.
September 19th, 2009 at 4:03 am
people came back to reality. they realized they suck.