Hydrogen Fuel: How it Works

Hydrogen is abundant in the atmosphere. It is in our air, our water and recently we’ve found out - it is in our waste as well. The issue has been finding a way to harness the hydrogen in our atmosphere and use it to make hydrogen fuel in large enough quantities to supply our cars.

How Hydrogen Fuel is Made

Hydrogen can be produced from several different resources. Fossil fuel, coal, natural gas and water all contain hydrogen. When hydrogen is produced from fossil fuels, it is done with steam reformation. Electrolysis separates the hydrogen from the oxygen in water. It takes a tremendous amount of energy to produce hydrogen. On a large scale, we are now using nuclear power, solar, wind, geothermal, and hydro-electric power to produce energy.

The challenge for researchers is to find a way to produce hydrogen in a way that is environmentally friendly and economically sound. Recent research has found a way to produce hydrogen from chocolate waste using E coli bacteria. Of course more testing must be done but the possibilities of using waste as a means of making hydrogen fuel are endless. We have a lot of trash in our world today. What if we could use much of it to make something that helps to clean our air?

For now, we don’t have the ability to generate enough hydrogen to use as energy for homes or fuel for cars. The hybrids we have out now that use hydrogen fuel get their hydrogen from water. Because hydrogen fuel is only part of the way these cars are powered, only a small amount is needed to do the work.

Though there are a few cars out there that are hydrogen powered, we won’t see any significant increases in production and distribution until science has found a way to produce large amounts of hydrogen and store it for a longer period of time. Until then, there won’t be enough hydrogen fuel stations to sustain the needs of thousands of drivers.

The use of hydrogen as fuel will help to address our concerns about air quality, climate changes due to greenhouse gases, dependency on foreign oil and depletion of resources. Hydrogen fuel has the potential to not only power the world, but to do in more cleanly and efficiently. The benefits of using hydrogen fuel are amazing. When we are able to produce enough of it we will have found the perfect solution to the energy crisis.