#Hydrogen powered cars drivers#
#Hydrogen powered cars free#

They are easy to adapt to if you’ve ever driven a gasoline vehicle, with almost no learning curve or shift in lifestyle.

#Hydrogen powered cars drivers#

Hydrogen combustion engines retain the performance and feel that drivers are accustomed to. Hydrogen has a higher ignition temperature than gasoline and eight times the combustion speed, making hydrogen combustion engines very responsive. However, in general, they are far cleaner than both hybrids and plug-in hybrids.īecause hydrogen is delivered in pressurized gas form, special fuel injectors are necessary that can safely and efficiently introduce hydrogen into the engine. Unfortunately, since they burn hydrogen along with oxygen found in the air, as in the case with gasoline engines, a certain amount of nitrogen oxide is created. Unlike fuel-cell systems, they do not rely on a chemical reaction to generate electricity instead, they burn hydrogen directly as a fuel – just like a gasoline engine.Įxcept for the combustion of trace amounts of engine oil during driving, hydrogen engines emit no carbon dioxide.

Hydrogen-burning internal combustion engines generate energy through the combustion of hydrogen instead of gasoline. And don’t forget that gasoline is highly flammable as well, and you’ll sometimes see a haze of fuel vapor when filling up.īoth hydrogen combustion cars and hydrogen fuel cell cars store fuel in similar tanks – it’s what happens after fueling where they differ. Hydrogen is highly combustible, which may bring to mind visions of exploding Zeppelins – but automakers have designed plenty of fail-safe mechanisms along with engineering exceptionally robust tanks. High-pressure storage means that a car’s hydrogen fuel tank needs to be very strong – not only to withstand the enormous internal pressure, but also to remain safe in a car crash. Indeed, the pressure under which hydrogen is stored can reach 10,000 psi or more – roughly 300 times the pressure of the average car tire. Therefore, in order to deliver decent driving range, hydrogen gas is stored in a compressed form. While hydrogen is significantly more energy-dense than batteries of the same weight, it is less energy-dense than gasoline or diesel – meaning an equal volume of hydrogen gas holds less power. Quick refueling is one of the major advantages of hydrogen cars. There are two major kinds of hydrogen vehicles – hydrogen combustion and hydrogen fuel cell – but both rely on hydrogen stored under pressure in an on-board tank, which can be refueled in a similar amount of time to gasoline.

#Hydrogen powered cars free#

Manufacturers of hydrogen cars have considered this and many offer free fueling for the first years of ownership. However, alternative and more sustainable hydrogen-processing techniques can be cost-prohibitive. Approximately 33 percent of total hydrogen power generation in the U.S. Of course, just because hydrogen produces only water from the tailpipe doesn’t make it completely clean. The most plentiful element on earth, hydrogen, when used as fuel, produces only water from the vehicle’s tailpipe. While we have gotten used to reading about hybrid cars, plug-in hybrid cars, and more recently, electric cars, there is another option to reducing or eliminating our greenhouse gas emissions: hydrogen.