Green Alternative Blog Post Date: Nov 28, 2006
Green Fuel by Crystal Chan
While gasoline-electric hybrid cars are currently the only green cars on the road, car-makers around the world continue to experiment with other technologies and fuels to further lower emissions.
The consensus of the auto industry is that fuel-cell technology, powered by hydrogen, is the best solution or zero-pollution vehicles. Although many prototypes are being tested, there's a long way to go before any become cheap and feasible enough for the average consumer.
Why Hydrogen?
The best pollution-free alternative to batteries, while still using clean electric motors, is the hydrogen fuel cell. Hydrogen is consumes by a pollution-free chemical reaction in a fuel cell to produce electricity, water, and waste heat. In fact, water vapour is the only thing you will find in the exhaust pipe.
Often called the perfect fuel, hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe, constituting about 93 per cent of all atoms. It is an environmentally friendly fuel that could reduce our dependence on finite fossil fuels, but many challenges must be overcome before it can be widely used.
The Challenges Ahead Production
Hydrogen must be produced from fossil fuels or some other energy source, or from water by the process of electrolysis. However, power plants are needed to generate the electricity needed, which means emissions may be produced along the way if carbon-based fuels, such as coal, are used.
The ideal way to obtain hydrogen is to separate it from water by using alternative energy sources like wind and solar power, but this is not cost effective yet.
The most likely source for now would be "transition" hydrocarbon fuels such as natural gas, methanol or even petrol, and the fuels converted into hydrogen gas by a "reformer". With these methods, a small quantity of carbon monoxide is released, but it is much less than the amount produced by conventional vehicles.
About the Author
1st Cat Care is to provide information and tips on purchasing auto insurance and comparison of auto insurance online and online, car insurance quotes and more car insurance.
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