Hydrogen power plants to come to the world in 2017.Hydrogen is a zero pollution fuel.The by product we get is water.Today the world is suffocating with polluted air.
So Hydrogen fuel concept is very relevant at present.
In US government has started giving grants to refueling stations to fuel Hydrogen fuel cars coming in late 2017.But they are giving grants to only those who got last years grants.
In California people can leash a hydrogen car the Honda FCX.But now there are know real hydrogen cars available. There are only concept cars like Chevrolet Equinox and Honda FCX.
We cant expect hydrogen fuel cars in India until 2020.
The devices called fuel cells are installed in the cars.The fuel cells convert hydrogen into electricity and the by products are heat and water vapor.The whole automotive industry and nature lovers are exited by this project
We use PEM fuel cells for cars.The cell consists of an anode, a cathode, a catalyst and a membrane.Hydrogen molecules(H2) are forced to fuel cells in the anode.The catalyst breaks the hydrogen to ions and electricity.That is protons and electrons.the ions pass through the membrane.But the eltriccity is trapped in their and has to do the pulling work.
After that oxygen is forced at the cathode and the ions and electrons meet at the cathode to form water.(H2O) which is the exhaust.
The fuel cells are thin and a stack of them can produce enough voltage to drive a car.
But where to get the Hydrogen.the easiest way is to separate hydrogen from water using electrolysis but this is a slow process.Some are saying that electrolysis can be done at the car itself to produce cars that run on water.But it is a bit difficult to do so.and it is the same as running a hybrid.
The other way is to extract it from natural gas which is a fossil fuel and it is the worst possible way to do so.
We think of hydrogen as an alternative to fossil fuels.But there are some drawbacks.
The hydrogen project is only on development.It might be very costly to run a car on hydrogen.Also hydrogen is dangerous gas if it combines with oxygen it could result in a car blast.So storing hydrogen is a problem.But hydrogen fire is not as dangerous as a regular fire because hydrogen less denser than air floats away before doing any harm.
The catalyst used for the purpose is platinum.So we can expect the price of fuel cells to be around 1 million dollars.
Hyundai is planning to make their fuel cell debut on i*35.Hyundai will start production in 2015 and are expecting to cell 1000 units.
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| hydrogen powered i*35 |
After 2015 Hyundai will produce a mass of fuel celled i*35 and Tucson in another countries with goal of selling 10000 a year.but the cost will be sky high and there are no refueling stations.
