Introduction
It is no secret that the Gulf war was fought for
superiority of the vast oil reserves in the Arab
regions. This point to the fact that the superpowers
are experiencing a severe shortage of fuel for
its un-satiated energy needs. While the advanced
nations in the world are the biggest consumers
of fuel, their fuel production capacities are
very limited or almost non-existent. Scientists
predict that the world's oil reserves will not
last for long and we need to find out alternative
forms of fuel for our ever growing fuel needs.
In addition, the quantum of pollution that occurs
by burning fossil fuels is an ever growing threat
to the already fragile ecosystems of the world.
It is in this scenario that the world has turned
its attention to non-conventional fuels that are
cheap, non-polluting and easily producible. While
a variety of fuels have been considered as non-conventional
alternate fuels, the potential of hydrogen as
a fuel of the future is promising.
Analysis
In terms of usage, it is believed that the United
States is the world's most fuel-consuming nation
with consumption levels reaching twelve million
barrels a day. The astounding part of this statistic
is that two third of this fuel, that is eight
million barrels are burned on the roads to power
cars and trucks. Obviously, the United States
is also the world's largest producer of Carbon
dioxide that contributes most to the green house
effect. The cost for importing so much oil a day
is a big strain on the economy [Tucker, 2003].
The hydrocarbons that are used in the gasoline-powered
engines release huge quantities of Hydrogen, Carbon
dioxide, Nitrous Oxide, Lead, cadmium, and other
compounds that are harmful to the environment
either in the free state, or in the combined form.
Perhaps the first use of hydrogen as a fuel happened
when it was used in balloons that were used for
flying. Hydrogen being lighter than air could
propel the balloon up into the air. Similarly
they were also used in Zeppelins, which were much
more advanced than balloons. However the use of
hydrogen in these primitive flying machines soon
had to stop because of the inflammable and explosive
nature of hydrogen. After some major accidents
that took a lot of lives, hydrogen was phased
out and was replaced by the inert Helium for flying
operations.
Renewed interest in hydrogen as a source of fuel
arose because of the fact that hydrogen is a major
component of water. With the fuel costs spiraling
higher each year, scientists turned to water as
a fuel source. It was out of this research that
hydrogen, a major component of water, was considered
to be an efficient alternate fuel. There are two
different ways in which hydrogen may be used as
a fuel to run automobiles. It can either be burnt
inside a modified engine to produce power or it
can be used in fuel cells which derive electric
power that can be used to run the motor. In either
case, the byproducts are water and /or oxygen,
which are not polluting and so such engines will
not pose any environmental hazard. However, the
costs of such engine are relatively very high
[ICLEI, 2003]
Other than using hydrogen directly as a fuel source,
it may also be used to power automobiles and other
engines using fuel cells. Electric engine vehicles
are vehicles whose motors are powered through
fuel cells. They produce much lower emissions
than gasoline vehicles and hence result in zero
air pollution. This is because they do not burn
any fuel. All their power comes from fuel cells.
Also, unlike gasoline vehicles which pollute more
as they grow older, in electric vehicles there
is no degradation or failure of emission control
systems. According to recent studies, electric
vehicles are ninety eight percent cleaner than
gasoline powered vehicles. Because it uses only
fuel cells to generate power the only emissions
which come from electric vehicles is water. This
makes it a much cleaner vehicle to drive. Fuel
cells, the latest development in man’s quest
for cleaner energy sources, combine hydrogen and
oxygen to give electricity. The process that does
it is an electrochemical process that will produce
only water and heat as the by-products. The power
from the fuel cells may be used to run motors
fitted in cars and automobiles.
Recently there have been a lot of concerns regarding
the sources that are used to produce hydrogen
that may be later used in fuel cells or internal
combustions engines. Since the production of hydrogen
requires many different processes that burn fossil
fuels, the process squanders away any advantage
to the environment that may be obtained by using
hydrogen as an alternative fuel. The most economic
process that is used to split hydrogen from water
uses natural gases as an energy source. The burning
of the natural gases causes pollution and the
degradation of the environment. Hence scientists
are advocating the use of solar power to generate
hydrogen from water, which can then be used to
power vehicles and factories [Natural Life, 2004].
Solar energy is used to generate electric currents
that are capable of splitting hydrogen from water.
While the technology that produces hydrogen may
be varied and diverse, the immediate advantages
of using hydrogen as a source of fuel are
• Elimination of pollution
• Environmentally useful by-products
• Localized production
• Abundance of the fuel
• efficiency of the fuel
There are also some disadvantages in using hydrogen
as a fuel source. Firstly, the technology that
can use hydrogen as a full-fledged fuel is still
in its development stage. Secondly, the fuel cell
technology is still very costly and cumbersome.
To top it all, the power output ration of hydrogen
engines are not that great when compared to gasoline
engines. Hence, it may be a long time before scientists
will be able to make a product that can satisfy
the customer and motivate him to use hydrogen
as an efficient alternate source of power.
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