Originally posted by: redly1
As I was driving around today in my car, flipping through the radio stations, I came across the Paul Harvey show. He announced that GM had deveolped an interim solution the the "Hydrogen Infrastructure" problem that mass production of fuel cell vehicles will encounter. Basically, GM has developed a Gasoline pump that, when needed, can extract Hydrogen fuel (surely via GM proprietary delivery/reception system) from gasoline.
A. has anyone else heard of this system?
B. Could pure Ethanol provide the same hydrogen as Gasoline?
I've also heard GM has a fuel cell vehicle that you actually put Gasoline in, it's converted to hydrogen and maybe oxygen, and then that is used for the fuel cell to provide elctricity to power the electric motors of the vehicle. seems funny
A. - No, I haven't heard of this system, but it doesn't seem like a bad idea. It would be much easier to extract the hydrogen at the pump than to try to do it either in the car, or try to distribute hydrogen. There is still a problem with on-vehicle storage, though research is being done on carbon nanotubes and zeolites.
B. - Pure ethanol does not have the same hydrogen density as gasoline. Gasoline is more hydrogen-rich than ethanol or methanol, which means that a car has to carry less of it to obtain the same amount of energy, whether by combustion or by reforming. Also, a system for production and distribution of gasoline already exists. One does not exist for ethanol or methanol. Finally, much of the industrial grade ethanol and methanol is produced from synthesis gas, which is either produced from fossil fuels, or is directly taken from the ground. Ethanol and/or methanol aren't currently viable alternative fuels, though they could be in the future. You've got to understand that these "renewable" fuels still have a big price that no one talks about.
Finally, I worked on a design for a fuel cell vehicle for a senior project. It is a very interesting idea. Gasoline is "reformed" into hydrogen and carbon dioxide (not oxygen). Oxygen from the air and the hydrogen are used in the fuel cell to produce electricity. There are lots of control problems with this design, and many of the current fuel cell technologies are fairly fragile. This sort of power production would have to be used to recharge a bank of batteries since the response time of the system "lags". There is an issue of startup of the reforming system as the auto-reformer works at a temperature of around 750C (or F, can't remember). The only clear advantage is that the system is cleaner burning than a regular gasoline engine. It is debatable if the system is more efficient, though I think it can be engineered to beat a gasoline engine. However, if we are simply worried about CO2 admissions, this type of vehicle will not solve our problems. Ultimately these cars require fossil fuels, thereby introducing sequestered carbon into the carbon cycle, raising atmospheric CO2 levels.
The ideas for hydrogen powered cars will not solve the problem of rising CO2 levels in the atmosphere unless the hydrogen is produced without using fossil fuels. None the less, it is interesting technology.
Ryan
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