Hydrogen Converted Cars & Pollution

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Kitsune
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Hydrogen Converted Cars & Pollution

Post by Kitsune »

This is kind of a two part question
First, what would it take to convert an Old VW Bug or one of those high MPG Geo Metros to Hydrogen fuel?

Second, would those vehicle pollute any more polluting compared to a hydrogen converted Honda Prius?
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Post by Knife »

Don't know but I assume the engine and transmission would go. It would probably be easier if they had a 'hydrogen fuel' chassis kit and you just drop the body on top of it.
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Kitsune
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Post by Kitsune »

On Nova, they had an episode on hydrogen cars and some were simply converted Prius
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"For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten."
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Re: Hydrogen Converted Cars & Pollution

Post by GrandMasterTerwynn »

Kitsune wrote:This is kind of a two part question
First, what would it take to convert an Old VW Bug or one of those high MPG Geo Metros to Hydrogen fuel?

Second, would those vehicle pollute any more polluting compared to a hydrogen converted Honda Prius?
A) Hydrogen will burn directly in the typical ICE. However, hydrogen has a fraction of the density of gasoline, and a nasty tendency to backfire. The former necessitates ripping out the existing fuel storage system. The latter necessitates the use of decent fuel injection system, one of which both the old Beetle, and the Geo Metro lack.

The best conversion is to feed those old rust-buckets into the car crusher and reclaim the metal for use in building a vehicle using a fuel-cell. The conversion for the excessively nostalgic involves replacing the fuel tank with one capable of storing hydrogen at the incredible pressures required to make it competitive with gasoline. This tank also needs to be very tough, to withstand collisions. It is also far larger than the gasoline tank the vehicles have now. This tank will also require a specialized fitting for refueling. The fuel delivery systems for both the Beetle (carburetor) and the Metro (throttle-body fuel injection) are inadequate for hydrogen combustion (putting it mildly. The Mythbusters demonstrated an old car will burn hydrogen nicely. They also demonstrated at least one spectacular backfire.) In both cases, the best solution would be to replace the motor wholesale, with one using a modern multi-port fuel injector.

B) What RAR do you come from? Toyota makes the Prius. And the converted clunkers from part A will still pollute far more, and use far more hydrogen, than a hybrid vehicle converted to burn hydrogen. The ICE in a regular car must supply all the power all the time, and throws away most of it as heat. The ICE in a hybrid can store some of that power off as electrical energy in its battery, and can be set up to only operate where it is at its most efficient. This improves overall system efficiency, leading to lower fuel consumption.
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Post by Kitsune »

Having trouble finding millage for the VW Beetle but getting mileage of aroun 40 mph
Geo Metro is listed as 38/45 mpg or 43/51 with a detuned engine
The Prius (sorry about screwing up the company) appears to get around 41.5
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"For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten."
Ecclesiastes 9:5 (KJV)
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Post by Kitsune »

Wanted to add that the Citroën C4 appeasr to be the best modern car as far as mileage with 49.6 mpg
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Thomas Paine

"For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten."
Ecclesiastes 9:5 (KJV)
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Post by Dargos »

Kitsune wrote:Wanted to add that the Citroën C4 appeasr to be the best modern car as far as mileage with 49.6 mpg
I can attest to that, I own a C4 and I get 52.3 mpg.
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Post by Shrykull »

What do you think would be the best alternate fuel? How big of a solar plant would we need if it solely to electrolsize water to make hydrogen fuel? Though I've heard that solar panels are not very efficient, but newer designs would be better in the future, that would make them so.
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Post by Natorgator »

I don't see why we need hydrogen fuel in the first place. IMO, it is better to convert all our cars to electric and upgrade our power grid. It'd be far less costly than building an entirely new hydrogen infrastructure.
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Post by Junghalli »

Shrykull wrote:What do you think would be the best alternate fuel? How big of a solar plant would we need if it solely to electrolsize water to make hydrogen fuel? Though I've heard that solar panels are not very efficient, but newer designs would be better in the future, that would make them so.
I'm not sure but IIRC water electrolyses is fairly inefficient, which is why most hydrogen is produced from hydrocarbons (which is polluting). For industrial-scale electrolyses an energy source with better density like nuclear or hydroelectric is probably better.

Solar panels on Earth's surface will never produce more than around 1.3 KW/m^2 (hard limit determined by the intensity of sunlight at Earth's orbit) and will always have unreliable fluctuating output and will always be nonfunctional about half the time, so I really doubt solar will ever be a very good energy source for high-energy applications on Earth's surface. Solar makes sense for remote areas and maybe house power but honestly I think the green movement has too much of a hard-on for it: it's far from an optimal energy source by nature.
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