Advancements In The Fuel Tanks For Hydrogen example essay topic

Introduction This report covers the new advancement in alternative fuels, specifically hydrogen power, and is intended for the general public as it affects everyone in the world. We, as a whole, have become more aware of the ever-increasing problem of pollution and its effect on the environment in the past two decades. We are noticing such effects as global warming, the green house effect, acid rain, and the depletion of natural resources utilized as sources of energy; thus, we have become more and more diligent in developing alternate sources of energy that are cleaner and more plentiful. Recently, it has been found that liquid hydrogen may be the answer to our prayers. "Water is the coal of the future", as stated be Jules Vern in 1874, and that's exactly what hydrogen power is based around. Hydrogen powered automobiles will basically eliminate all harmful pollutants and be able to maintain the power and drivability of a gasoline powered vehicle.

This is important and applies to all of us. Findings Hydrogen powered automobiles have been in test phases for nearly 20 years. One company, BMW, has had test vehicles for 20 years and is the first and only company to have a small-production hydrogen powered vehicle on the market. They actually have three hydrogen-powered vehicles: the 750 hL, the 745 h, and the new Mini-Cooper come with the hydrogen option. These three automobiles are all apart of BMW's Clean energy project.

The principle is straightforward: water is split electrolytically into its two components hydrogen and oxygen. The energy required for separating the two elements is transferred to the hydrogen. Hydrogen is thus an energy carrier and not an energy source such as petrol for example. The hydrogen is then cooled to and stored at -253 Celsius, which makes its volume a thousandth of what it was at room temperature. From storage (the vehicles fuel cell / tank, ) the hydrogen is brought into the intake system of the engine and combusted / combined with oxygen.

When hydrogen is combusted with oxygen in the air, this energy is released to drive the engine and what remains is water. Absolutely no pollutants are released into the atmosphere, only water will come out of the tailpipe of this vehicle. Now comes the question of where would you fill up your hydrogen fuel cell and even if you could, how could you maintain the hydrogen at temperature of -253 c? The energy stored in the hydrogen can be used for driving cars in two ways: either in an internal combustion engine or in a fuel cell for generating electricity required by an electric motor. The engineers decided on the advantageous and the tried-and-tested internal combustion engine or the so-called bi valence system, which permits both the use of hydrogen and gasoline. This requires adaptations ranging from the fuel system to the carburetion process.

An electronic mixture formation system precisely coordinates hydrogen feed and load changes. The bivalent system also allows for a 600 miles between fill up setup, considering the vehicle can get 200 miles per tank of hydrogen and 400 miles per tank of gasoline. This way, you have an alternative to the alternative. In the first years of production, hydrogen filling stations are going to be few and far between. So in the event that you run out of hydrogen, you can still run on gasoline. Early in the test phases, the hydrogen had to be heated up to ambient temperature prior to injection into the intake system.

Now, the super-cooled liquid hydrogen can be injected into the intake system as is, which allows for an increased cylinder charge. An increased cylinder charge means more efficiency and more power out of the engine. As for the maintenance of the hydrogen, BMW's solution was to create a take that was made up of 70 layers of aluminum and fiberglass to keep the hydrogen cooled. There have already been advancements in the fuel tanks for hydrogen. To date, cylindrical fuel tanks had to be used, which took up passenger and / or luggage space.

Now the fuel tanks take up as much space as a conventional fuel tank. Conclusion Hydrogen powered vehicles are not all set and done now, there still exists some problems such as: the need for automated fueling stations, mass transportation of hydrogen, the fact that hydrogen is very explosive, the method in which the massive amounts of electricity to separate hydrogen and oxygen molecules from water is to be produced, and the affordability aspect of a hydrogen vehicle. o The problem of needing an automated fueling station is rather apparent. The hydrogen, which is at -253 Celsius, comes out of a nozzle into the tank in the vehicle. No way can we put that nozzle in the hands of a customer for fear that the customer may make a mistake and seriously burn them in the process. o So automated systems are in need, but before we think about that we need a method of transporting hydrogen to these stations. As of right now, there are no pipelines carrying liquid hydrogen anywhere only tanker trucks. There is a need to have pipelines running to certain regions then tankers in that region to disperse the hydrogen to stations in that region. o Another problem is that hydrogen is very explosive and that may be discouraging to consumers but hydrogen is 18 times lighter than air and therefore evaporates straight up and will not form a vapor cloud to ignite close by. o In order to separate hydrogen and oxygen in water, massive amounts of electricity are needed.

It would be counterproductive to use coal to create the electricity needed to create hydrogen as a fuel, so an alternate energy source is needed here such as solar power. If we used solar power, it will still take time to make it efficient enough to produce the electricity that we need to create hydrogen as a fuel. o To date, hydrogen vehicles would not be economically feasible to the common consumer, but once the above problems have been solved and a system is setup and advancements made, costs will go down making it much more economical to the common household. Recommendations Despite the several problems, hydrogen powered vehicles are very feasible. As of right now, automobiles produce 50% of the pollution in the air. If everyone were to use a hydrogen powered vehicle, 50% of air pollution is eliminated right there. This would make life for everyone better, a lot less smog, a lot less acid rain, green house affect would begin to diminish, global warming would slow down, and air would be easier to breathe.

All in all, life outdoors would be that much better. This would be a huge step in the fight to stop mass pollution. This might also get people who are apathetic to the awareness of the environment to actually care. The one thing that has turned a lot of people away from buying economy cars is that they lack power and panache, but these hydrogen cars have power and look what car company is the first to produce and test on a large scale, none other than BMW, how about that for panache? Though it may not be for a couple years or even ten years before hydrogen cars are being sold on a large scale, I would recommend that you, the general public, do what it takes to pave the way for the mass production of hydrogen vehicles. Show interest because like it is stated above, if everyone were to have a hydrogen powered vehicle, everyone would be so much happier and the Earth would be that much cleaner.

This technological advancement is important to the survival of you, a species on this earth and every other species and ecosystem on this planet.