Hydrogen Fueled Vehicles

Hydrogen Fueled Vehicles

INTRODUCTION:

Interest in the use of hydrogen as a vehicular fuel has been revived in recent times by the desire to control urban pollution resulting from the ever-increasing number of internal combustion engines in our major cities, and by concern over our dwindling petroleum reserves. In fact, serious penalties associated with the storage and use of hydrogen rendered it virtually unusable as recently as one year ago.

BACKGROUND:

Hydrogen is widely regarded as a promising transportation fuel because it is clean, abundant, and renewable. In a gaseous state, it is colorless, odorless, and non-toxic. When hydrogen is combusted with oxygen, it forms water as the by-product. Due to hydrogen’s high flammability range, it can be completely combusted over a wide range of air/fuel ratios. Unlike gasoline, which if combusted outside its optimal air/fuel ratio will produce excess carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrocarbons (HC), hydrogen does not have a carbon element and therefore will not produce those toxic gases. Like gasoline however, when hydrogen is combusted in air (mixture of oxygen and nitrogen) the temperature of combustion can cause the formation of the nitric oxidizes (NOx). Hydrogen however has an advantage over gasoline in this area because it can be combusted using very high air/fuel ratios. Using a high air/fuel ratio (i.e. combusting hydrogen with more air than is theoretically required) causes the combustion temperature to drop dramatically and thus causes a reduction in the formation of NOx. Unfortunately, the use of excess air also lowers the power output of the engine.


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