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Resources
- Hydrogen Vehicles
Once our visitors have finished browsing our hybrid vehicle
website, we recommend checking out some of the quality hydrogen
vehicle websites that we've listed on this page. Remember to
bookmark us and come back often, but that said, please take
the time to browse some of the other sites listed here which
contain information on hydrogen cars and vehicles.
DOE
Hydrogen Vehicles - contains much information
on hydrogen internal combustion engines, fuel cell engines
and H2 hybrid vehicles.
Department
of Energy National Laboratory, Livermore - has long
been involved in research and development of alternative energy
technologies for transportation, including hydrogen fuel. Contains
information on hydrogen production, refueling infrastructure,
and hydrogen storage onboard the vehicles.
Hydrogen
Cars Now - website, message board and blog about
hydrogen cars, vehicles and the building of the fueling infrastructure.
California
Hydrogen Highway Network - initiative is to support
and catalyze a rapid transition to a clean, hydrogen transportation
economy in California, thereby reducing our dependence on
foreign oil, and protecting our citizens from health harms
related to vehicle emissions.
Hydrogen
Fuel Initiative - transcript from President George
W. Bush's speech concerning U. S. energy independence, government
policy and a thanks to the American entrepreneurs who are
currently making the dream of a hydrogen highway network
a reality.
National
Hydrogen Association - is a membership organization
founded by a group of ten industry, university, research,
and small business members in 1989. Serves as a focal point
for interest in hydrogen technologies for electric generation,
energystorage, and other applications.
Fuel
Cell Vehicles - government website offering information
of the research and development of fuel cell vehicles (FCVs)
that may someday revolutionize on-road transportation. Offers
insight into this emerging technology that has the potential
to significantly reduce energy use and harmful emissions,
as well as dependence on foreign oil.
Reviewing
the Hydrogen Fuel and FreedomCAR Initiatives - testimony
submitted by Dr. Joseph Romm to the House of Representatives
Science Committee offering a counter-argument of why hydrogen
fuel cell vehicles are decades away from becoming a reality.
Hydrogen
Cars - organization promoting hydrogen cars as the
ultimate clean and green technology for transportation.
A fuel cell uses the chemical energy of hydrogen to cleanly
and efficiently produce electricity, with water and heat
as by products. (How much water?) Fuel cells are unique
in terms of the variety of their potential applications;
they can provide energy for systems as large as a utility
power station and as small as a laptop computer.
Fuel cells have several benefits over conventional combustion-based
technologies currently used in many power plants and passenger
vehicles. They produce much smaller quantities of greenhouse
gases and none of the air pollutants that create smog and
cause health problems. If pure hydrogen is used as a fuel,
fuel cells emit only heat and water as a byproduct.
A fuel cell is a device that uses hydrogen (or hydrogen-rich
fuel) and oxygen to create electricity by an electrochemical
process. A single fuel cell consists of an electrolyte and
two catalyst-coated electrodes (a porous anode and cathode).
While there are different fuel cell types, all work on the
same principle:
- Hydrogen, or a hydrogen-rich fuel, is fed to the anode
where a catalyst separates hydrogen's negatively charged
electrons from positively charged ions (protons).
- At the cathode, oxygen combines with electrons and,
in some cases, with species such as protons or water,
resulting in water or hydroxide ions, respectively.
- For polymer electrolyte membrane and phosphoric acid
fuel cells, protons move through the electrolyte to the
cathode to combine with oxygen and electrons, producing
water and heat.
- For alkaline, molten carbonate, and solid oxide fuel
cells, negative ions travel through the electrolyte to
the anode where they combine with hydrogen to generate
water and electrons.
- The electrons from the anode side of the cell cannot
pass through the electrolyte to the positively charged
cathode; they must travel around it via an electrical
circuit to reach the other side of the cell. This movement
of electrons is an electrical current.
Most automotive engineers and auto manufacturers now agree
that one day hydrogen fuel cell vehicles will rule the highways
and roadways of the world. The transition to these vehicles
will be a rocky one, though, with hybrid vehicles leading
the way for some time to come. Though hybrid vehicles may
be just transitional vehicles onto the day when the hydrogen
highway is fully operational, the transition could take
10 to 20 years. Until this time, hybrid vehicles are a great
solution for cleaning up the environment, lessening dependence
upon foreign oil and stretching a buck at the gasoline stations.
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