Comments on: How do fuel cells work?

By: Tyrone

Tyrone — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 22:42:40 +0000

The problem with hydrogen as a fuel is that you don't find pure hydrogen in nature. To produce hydrogen, energy has to be used to break the natural bonds it forms with other elements. It's like turning water into hydrogen and oxygen and then back into water. This link, while I haven't read all of it, looks to have a pretty good explanation of a "hydrogen future": http://www.woodgas.com/hydrogen_economy.pdf. Hydrogen therefore, isn't a source of clean energy, merely a potential carrier for it.

By: Geek-Speak » May Roundup

Geek-Speak » May Roundup — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 14:41:55 +0000

[...] How do fuel cells work? – Chris followed up an earlier post on hydrogen cars with a post looking at how fuel cells actually work. [...]

By: Chris

Chris — Wed, 28 May 2008 18:50:55 +0000

There would be one big advantage to methanol, though: it’s something to use when the oil runs out :)

Thanks for the remark about the post too, by the way. It’s always good to get some discussion going!

By: Tyrone

Tyrone — Wed, 28 May 2008 16:33:30 +0000

I really do not know very much about methanol as a conventional fuel replacement, however, after a quick search, it seems that methanol has been seriously considered as a viable fuel alternative. The main issue, is again, the emission of CO2 when burned, because Methanol is an alcohol. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methanol_economy

Also, I don’t think I mentioned in my first post, the original article was very nice.

By: Chris

Chris — Wed, 28 May 2008 08:52:53 +0000

Very interesting Tyrone – I’ve heard of laptops running on methanol; do you think that could be expanded to larger-scale power generation?

By: Chris

Chris — Wed, 28 May 2008 07:24:49 +0000

Thanks Tyrone – I’ll have a look at that.

I see Honda are trialling a solar hydrogen refuelling station in California, which might go some way to at least producing the hydrogen cleanly… but it remains to be seen whether it’ll produce enough to keep a family car fuelled. And I wonder whether it would get enough power to do its job in somewhere like the UK.

For this to really be the “environmental” choice – the fuel would need to be produced cleanly via solar, tidal or wind power. What do you think?

By: Tyrone

Tyrone — Tue, 27 May 2008 22:51:17 +0000

The problem with hydrogen as a fuel is that you don’t find pure hydrogen in nature. To produce hydrogen, energy has to be used to break the natural bonds it forms with other elements. It’s like turning water into hydrogen and oxygen and then back into water. This link, while I haven’t read all of it, looks to have a pretty good explanation of a “hydrogen future”: http://www.woodgas.com/hydrogen_economy.pdf. Hydrogen therefore, isn’t a source of clean energy, merely a potential carrier for it.

By: Chris

Chris — Tue, 27 May 2008 10:57:47 +0000

Thanks for the comment – glad you found it useful.

Chris

By: winstonzane

winstonzane — Tue, 27 May 2008 04:21:30 +0000

Thanks for your useful info. This is all incredibly helpful.

Dzo