Hydrogen Gas In Cars - Something For the Future ?

By Adrian Fletcher

It is most likely that your car is using an ethanol-gasoline fuel blend. Ethanol, produced from corn as fuel, has been hailed as a breakthrough to reducing both American's reliance on foreign oil and dangerous greenhouse gas emissions. This is a moot point as many people claim that growing tonnes of crops to produce a fuel that is no better than gasoline is a cul-de-sac solution. For instance, Ethanol has been used by cars to run without optimization for quite a while without significant changes in fuel prices or greenhouse emissions. A newer contender is hydrogen gas in cars for improved fuel economy.


Using hydrogen gas in cars gives numerous more advantages over ethanol and gasoline fuels. Hydrogen gas is a better and cleaner burning fuel leaving no carbon behind but emits only water vapor consisting mainly of majority of nitrogen. Nitrogen makes up more than three-quarters of the air we inhale. Hydrogen fuel roughly gives two-thirds better fuel economy at half the cost of gasoline.


There appears to be two major concerns involved in converting to hydrogen gas cars. The first is distance from a hydrogen gas generation facility which may be the most difficult to overcome. Creating the infrastructure, a kin to all the gas stations that you see on every other corner of a street is a massive undertaking. Without available refueling stations, you will have problems finding the hydrogen fuel for your vehicle. The second issue revolves around designing a viable on-board fuel generation system to continuously power the vehicle.


The process of producing great quantities of hydrogen fuel on board a vehicle to burn instead of gasoline still faces technological limitations, compromising widespread use of this technology on the road. A few automobile manufacturers planning to manufacture fully hydrogen-powered vehicles are also planning to produce home hydrogen gas fueling stations. This will not only allow you to fuel your car but also generate power for your dwelling, giving you a big cost reduction in energy expenditure and help in environmental protection.


There are several viable options for converting your gasoline-powered vehicle into a hydrogen hybrid that will allow you to take advantage of both the increases in fuel economy and a large reduction in your vehicles emission. Commercially available kits produce small amounts of hydrogen using the electricity generated by your car and add it to the gasoline air/fuel mixture the car is already running on. Prices range in cost from roughly two hundred dollars for kits composed of easy to find parts, to kits requiring specialty equipment that costs several thousand dollars.


When hydrogen fuel production begins on mega scale and will be easily available in big volume, we will definitely begin to see new inventions when we start using hydrogen gas in cars. Indeed, BMW are publicizing their work on a hydrogen fuel car but it is only a one off prototype without any commercial potential to date. Before that date when this becomes commercially viable arrives, home-made kits that use readily available parts and plain water can help the mechanically-inclined to get a long up on the technology. Instructions for creating your own water to gas kits are found on the internet through sites such as Water4gas.


It's not only do-it-yourselfers and automobile manufacturers paying attention to hydrogen gas in cars, energy companies and even governments are now exploring hydrogen fuel technology. With more interest along with financial resources to back up continuing research, the day may soon come that hydrogen gas will be the fuel of choice powering your car.

About the Author:

Get more details on the water for gas conversion kits available at water for gas reports, including what a car running on water really means.