I found this hydrogen engine on youtube I thought was interesting

[Tom O]

 

[JustaDB]

Kewl! Now, if they could just figger how to get more energy out of hydrogen than it takes to generate it...

 

[Tom O]

I’m not sure there is a lot of videos on generating hydrogen that seem to give off a fair amount of gas.

 

[Susquatch]

I really only watched the intro because I was curious about how such a system could generate power. But the minute he said a major advantage was the extremely low weight of hydrogen which is perfect because ultralight cars are the way of the future, I stopped watching. The energy density of hydrogen storage systems is abysmal. And as others have pointed out, the energy balance just isn't there either.

 

[Dabbler]

extremely low weight of hydrogen

I did listen to the whole thing in the background. It is an improvement on the Wankel concept, but a fairly minor one. Mostly hype, but they have come up with a few nice design ideas. The narrator know very little about combustion engines, so the video is otherwise informationless.

 

[phaxtris]

I'm so lost as to why hydrogen for cars is a thing again, they went through all this in the late 90's early 2000's, hydrogen was going to be the thing of the future...at least according to popular science....except for all of the problems with fuel density

It's driving me nuts, hearing from various people about hydrogen cars like it's a new thing and I have to say "yea they tried this, it doesn't work, and still doesn't work"

Ok rant over

 

[Tom O]

It’s like Graphine a fantastic discovery small enough to screen salt from seawater supposedly but it has become less heard of since they got their Nobel prize.

 

[Susquatch]

My opinion for what it's worth.....

The folks who benefit financially from government, private, academic, or angel funding have to keep it alive and well or the money dries up.

Also, people want to believe in the impossible and be afraid of their shadows. It's human nature.

 

[Former Member]

I'm so lost as to why hydrogen for cars is a thing again, they went through all this in the late 90's early 2000's, hydrogen was going to be the thing of the future...at least according to popular science....except for all of the problems with fuel density

It's driving me nuts, hearing from various people about hydrogen cars like it's a new thing and I have to say "yea they tried this, it doesn't work, and still doesn't work"

Ok rant over

The simple answer is energy storage. Batteries (ie electric Cars) have an energy storage and refueling issue. Which is why liquid fuelled engines are still the preferred choice.

Don't mistake this as anti-green, its not that.

Liquid or compressed hydrogen (like LP) can be easily refilled or cylinder swapped which is what keeps the idea alive in finding an overall solution.

Given current technology IMHO hybrid is currently the best option, range, power, rapid fill, and initial green manufacturing/resource usage as the pink elephant question in the room that no one talks about is.....Where is the energy coming from.....we don't have the capacity as it is.

 

[phaxtris]

...Where is the energy coming from.....we don't have the capacity as it is.

Dont take this as an argument, but I believe that to be the weakest point against electric vehicles I hear on a regular basis, it's like all these people forget we live in a capitalist society, if we want to buy a product, capitalism will find a way to sell it to us, there are plenty of other talking points that shoot holes is that notion, but that's the simplest and easiest one that should be obvious to everyone. At least imo.

Again, not trying to argue with you, these are just my thoughts.

I this a lot of people are just resistant and maybe scared of change...think about when gasoline powered cars started to be a thing...you had to buy fuel from a "chemist" (like drug store) in little 1 gallon tins, can you imagine what everyone was saying then, I'm sure there were so many now seemingly ridiculous arguments being made against them then to

Either way it will take some time to get mass adoption, and it probabaly won't be in all sectors, I think mostly just personal vehicles/commuter vehicles, I believe energy hungry vehicles will be liquid fuel for a very long time, unless there is some major breakthrough in energy storage