Liquid Hydrogen
Liquid hydrogen may be the fuel of the future helping us decrease
our dependency on foreign oil and lowering all of the risks that
go with that dependency. Although many of the hydrogen-powered
cars that have been showcased lately have been run on compressed
hydrogen, most technicians agree that running a car on liquid
hydrogen would be more efficient, since liquid hydrogen would
not be used up as rapidly in a tank as compressed hydrogen.
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Liquid Hydrogen Storage |
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There are a few kinks that need to be ironed out before liquid
hydrogen-powered vehicles can start being mass-produced. For one
thing, fuel tanks for liquid hydrogen will have to be much larger
than gas tanks due to hydrogen's low density, plus the tanks will
need to be super-cooled and insulated due to liquid hydrogen's
low boiling point. This brings up the issue of increased tank
size and weight, which would mean changing present day hydrogen
car designs to accommodate. There is no doubt, however, that engineers
will be able to work this issue out in the near future. Cars have
come a long way since the first one was built, and automobile
engineering technology can rise to almost any task.
Since hydrogen is a clean-burning fuel, it makes sense to strive
to use it as an alternative fuel to gasoline and oil. The only
problem is that since not enough hydrogen is available for use
in its natural form in nature, it has to be extracted from such
sources as water or natural gas. This takes energy and therein
lies the present problem.
Using fossil fuels to produce the energy to extract hydrogen
cancels out the benefits that are the reason we want to use hydrogen
in the first place. The one exception may be the present trend
towards cleaner burning coal methods, which one day may make this
fossil fuel an attractive energy producer. So what else can be
done? Nuclear power is probably not the answer, since the political
and perceptual problems associated with using nuclear power have
never been sufficiently resolved.
The process for extracting hydrogen so that it can be turned
into liquid hydrogen to run vehicles can be done using solar power,
wind power, hydro-electric power or reforming methane or natural
gas. Though solar and wind power can both be unstable sources
due to changing weather conditions, hydro-electric power and reforming
methane and natural gas could be fairly consistent.
No matter what the present barriers are to the widespread use
of liquid hydrogen as an alternative, or even primary fuel source,
there is no doubt that modern technology can tackle the problems
and overcome them. Once hydrogen is established as one of our
primary fuels, the benefits will begin to become abundantly clear
in the form of cleaner air, less dependence on foreign oil, and
a healthier environment and economy. That can't be all bad, can
it?
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