Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Mercedes-Benz, and Toyota are among the car manufacturers
that have developed a number of hydrogen-fueled concept
cars and
prototypes
. These cars may end up in your local car
dealership before too long.
Drawbacks to Hydrogen Fuel
Hydrogen fuel is difi cult to make and store. Liquid hydrogen
has to be kept very cold, at a temperature of -423.17º
Fahrenheit (-252.87º Celsius)! This requires special insulated
storage tanks that are large and heavy. Making hydrogen gas
into liquid hydrogen is a long process. The gas is placed in
large tanks, then pressurized and cooled. These steps take a
great deal of energy—especially electricity. In the end, about
40 percent of the energy that the liquid hydrogen can produce
is “lost” because of the amount of electricity and other types
u
A Vision of
the Future
Jules Verne was a French author who wrote science
fi ction stories such as Twenty Thousand Leagues Under
the Sea and Around the World in Eighty Days. In his
1874 topic The Mysterious Island, Verne suggested the
possibility that hydrogen could be used for fuel. He wrote,
“I believe that water will one day serve as our fuel, that
the hydrogen and oxygen which compose it, used alone or
together, will supply an inexhaustible source of heat and
light, burning with an intensity that coal cannot equal.”
