You guys know that Hydrogen is a byproduct of the production of one of the most used chemicals in the world? Read up on Lye or Sodium Hydroxide, which is produced by electrolysis of salt water to yield the NaOH along with Hydrogen gas and Chlorine gas...

Also, look at a few pics I took of Mazda's Hydrogen-Gasoline-Electric Hybrid Rotary with electrically assisted turbo prototype! I took these in 2004...

 

Hydrogen is straightforward to make. But the law of conservation of energy means it requires more energy to produce than you get burning it. So unless you have a lot of excess electricity generation -- which we don't -- you have no way of producing large enough quantities of it to make a dent in the world's transportation power needs.

Over quite a long period of time this may change. In the short run, hybrids and lighter cars are more promising.

 

My father has been saying for years that someone should build a car like a train. Get a small, very efficient internal combustion engine (fuel source of you choice) to generate electrcity for an electric motor. I think if you had a few more battereis then a hybrid but less then an electric car you could drive 5-10 minutes or more without turning the motor on but you would have an unlimited range as long as you keep filling up. You could also recharge the batteries by plugging the car in. What makes gas/electric hybrids more efficient is that when you press the brake it uses the energy to charge the batteries, therfore you have less energy lost. They also shut off at stop lights, so no idleing.

Again, weight is always a killer, so keep the batteries to a minimum and the internal combustion engine small and effecient. Maybe a 1.0L, turbo charge it for bigger vehicles. Heck, maybe there is a way to make a rotory super efficient. It would be a small and light weight engine.

 

Tell your Dad that such cars (serial hybrids) are indeed in he works. The Chevy Volt will be the first mass produced plug-in hybrid. Chevy will display the production look
this September I believe. The hold-up has been advances in battery technology. You can do some initial reading on a thread that rotarygod started here. Even beter things in the works (skateboard platform) if GM doesn't g bankrupt first.

 

I've been proponent of the series (serial) hybrid for a while now. It obsoleted the steam engine over 50 years ago. It's the future. Hydrogen is a fad. It's a dead end nowhere of a fuel. Of course should someone want to waste the time and effort on it, it can still be used to power the range extender (generator) in a series hybrid.

Hydrogen is the most abundant gas in the universe and a main component of water which is why everyone gets a stiffy over the thought of using it. However to get it into a usable form for an internal combustion engine is an inefficient process. It is very inefficient compared to gasoline anyways. It plain sucks as an internal combustion engine fuel. There is ZERO potential in it for this use! Mazda is spinning their wheels with it and not in a fun way.

BMW is looking back to steam as a form of closed loop heat recovery from the exhaust which in turn sends some energy back to the crank. Remember the series hybrid obsoleted the steam engine. Suddenly we have 2 car companies with different approaches. One with a series hybrid and one with steam. History is going to repeat itself!

 

And in the end we'll all be driving Segway's....

 

I just heard about the chevy volt 5 miutes after I posted, I also heard that prius owners are converting there cars to a plug in hybrids. Claims of 100MPG city driving.

The volt will be able to go about 40 miles per charge with a 6 hour recharge time, they say the small on board emergency motor will allow it to go farther. Again, I think they should remove some of the batteries to save weight. Why lug around an emergency motor and heavy batteries. The motor is a must because nobody wants to get stuck, so if you have it then use it. 10-15 miles per charge and a motor for longer trips which automaticly turns on when you have 5 minutes left on the batteries but you could manualy turn off if you are almost to your destination.

 

Another "tech" that has been experimented with is a cylindar weight surrounding the drive shaft. This weight is suspended with a liquid and spins as the driveshaft accelerates, and retains its energy when the car comes to a stop. Then once the car starts again it uses that energy to help accelerate the car. Just like your toy cars when you were little that you rev'd first then set down on the kitchen floor.

 

That's why I mentioned that it is a byproduct of the production of other chemicals, it means it is already been produced but not necessarily distributed for other use, some of these NaOH producers just vent it.

And, production of gasoline also requires more energy than we get from burning it...

 

It's a balancing act, either carry more batteries or more fuel. But as battery technology improves, the equation shifts to the more efficient genration and storage of electrical power with the grid and batteries. Not sure why or even if the grid is more efficient, but if we ever make progres with nuclear power it sure beats fossil fuels. In the meantime we have lots of coal for making electricity. Yes, you can even make fuel from coal but not sure how economical or efficient that is either.

 

Electric is the way to go:
http://www.teslamotors.com/

0-60 in 3.9 seconds, 220 miles per charge