Hydrogen Power

While reading Mark Marcantonio’s column on re-energizing the Democratic party, I was hit with a thought about renewable sources of energy. He spoke of the familiar standbys of wind and solar, but I would add one other possibility to the energy independence act. Hydrogen. It’s renewable, can be made relatively cheaply in mass quantities, and is no more volatile than gasoline if done right. It would mean rethinking the way we build cars, especially the fuel tanks, and the way we refuel our vehicles.

Some of the advantages are, no reliance on outside sources for fuel, zero emissions (water vapor is all that comes out), and therefore no more massive catalytic converters required (which eats away at gas mileage as well). Hydrogen itself can be extracted from seawater. With the big hole in the ozone layer eating away at the polar icecaps, I doubt seawater will be in short supply anytime soon.

Downsides are the explosive nature of hydrogen itself, reteaching people how to safely refuel their cars, and rebuilding service stations to accommodate both gasoline and hydrogen sales.

Building double-layer tanks that are vacuum-sealed can help offset the explosive nature of the fuel. This prevents the gas from escaping during fueling and the inside layer of the tank can be filled with a substance that if the tank is punctured (like in automobile crashes), it will render the hydrogen inert. This is similar to what aircraft manufacturers do with jet fuel tanks. It would mean that Detroit would need to rethink the way they build cars and trucks in relation to fuel systems. The tanks would need to be easily removed (for say, a yearly flushing and inspection). Perhaps a swing-out door at the bottom of trunks for easy access.

Gasoline tanks require pumps to get the gas from the tank to the engine. With vacuum sealing, pumps would no longer be necessary since an adjustable access valve (allowing the flow of hydrogen depending on how much is required by the engine at different RPMs) would provide a path out of a vacuum-sealed tank (Nature abhors a vacuum) and any outside pressure change would force the fuel out.

Refueling provides a different problem. Self-serve as we know it would be almost impossible. Imagine hordes of suburbanites that can’t even program their VCR clocks trying to maintain a steady vacuum while filling their cars with hydrogen. Can you say KABOOM!

There are two solutions that I can think of off the top of my head. Require that all fill-ups be done by trained techs (adding to employment as another benefit) or removable tanks that are exchanged when empty. Kind of like the propane tanks for grills.

Going to removable tanks would also mean that filling up your car would take a lot less time as well. Pop the trunk, remove the old canister(s), drop in a new one and you’re off. I’m not a chemist or a chemical engineer, so I have no idea how much a tank with the equivalent of 20 gallons of gasoline would weigh in comparison, but you could also have 2 or more tanks in smaller quantities.

Detroit and all the other carmakers would have to be very co-operative in order to make this work. While they could all make their own engines of different sizes and horsepower, they would all need to use the same kind of fuel containers for the hydrogen.

There are other problems as well. Shipping hydrogen to the various service stations for example. How comfortable are you going to be driving next to a tractor-trailer filled with a gas that destroyed the 900-foot long Hindenburg dirigible (That’s over three football fields long guys. Or the total yardage gained by the Miami Dolphins this season. The last comment was strictly for Chris Seibold’s pleasure. You can laugh too if you want. It depresses me.) in less than a minute and a half? New vacuum pumps would need to be designed as well. New kinds of storage tanks at the stations (similar in construction to the tanks in cars might work).

Also keep in mind that initially, this might mean more expensive fill-ups. This is not a cheap solution when you take into consideration all the infrastructure that must be built to support it.

So to sum it up’¦.

Advantages:

1. No pollution
2. No reliance on outside sources for fuel
3. Faster fill-ups
4. Big block engines with LOTS of horsepower can return without the guilt

Disadvantages:

1. Getting co-operation from the big oil companies
2. Getting co-operation from the big car companies
3. Rebuilding the infrastructure of service stations to accommodate a new fuel
4. Driving next to big trucks filled with this stuff
5. Possibly more expensive at first
6. Without pollution from cars to worry about, I would have to go back to crying about the oh-so-woeful Miami Dolphins. Wait, sorry different blog

Anyone else have any good ideas? Here is a good place to bring them up.

Addendum 1. In my original blog entry, when I talked about vacuum pumps, I thought it would be funny to link it to Adam and Eve dot com. This is a site that sells items of an (ahem) adult nature. While checking the blog’s links, I actually went to the site and decided it probably would not be a good idea to link there from this site. but I still think it’s funny