I was just doing some research on new fuels, and I came across a page that mentioned that for every kW of power it costs $73 and an average fuel cell has 400kW. THAT IS CRAZY! My friend and I have built a Hydrogen Cell (that ports the hydrogen strait into the engine) for about $100 using household items, and it really was not that hard to do. Why does it cost so much for these manufactured cells? We could and should have hydrogen cells in every vehicle right now, not in a few years, what are they waiting for? (I personally believe it is because the government doesn't want to give up the money that they are making from the natural gas companies, like tariffs and such)
Well, OK there are a couple of logical and factual problems here. First of all, if you in fact looked up the cost of fuel cells and came across a page then you have your answer regarding what they cost to purchase or operate. Much of the rest sounds like a rant but as this is against the T of S I will stop short of calling it that. But let me take a closer look and surmise an answer to your second question also from within the body of your text. In your research you correctly identified that a hydrogen fuel cell produces power and it is measured as KW because it is in the form of electricity. . Then you compare this to what you and your friend added on to a car that ports hydrogen strait into the engine. So the thing that you built produces hydrogen, while what you were researching produces electricity. These are two different operations. The thing that you built might be commonly called a hydrogen generator. This would be like comparing the cost of a gasoline refinery to the cost of a car. Producing something and using it doesn't necessarily cost the same amount. Then you go on to compare hydrogen cells to natural gas. Natural gas is primarily used to heat homes. Gasoline is used to power vehicles. It seems you have again compared two different things. No matter what your beliefs such inconsistencies do not do a credit to your cause or lend credibility to your statements.
Because of the economics involved alternate sources are not going to work until oil prices are three or four times what they are today. That of course does not even begin to consider the cost to make transportation that can use these new sources of energy. Again economics make them unreasonable. You can buy a new car say for $12,000 and one you are using as an example will be more along the lines of $250,000. How many people can afford the car? NONE. So the solution is to keep on working on technologies, reduce the use of oil for heating through the use of atomic energy and electricity, OPEN up all areas of the US to exploration and hope that not everyone in China gets a SUV. The choices currently are none and none, so why do we keep going on and on about it. Have you read the energy plan the administration put before Congress? It makes a lot of sense but they would not open up new areas for exploration.
ports hydrogen straight into the engine Its apparent that you don't understand what a fuel cell is. In this context, its a device that produces electricity from the reaction of hydrogen and oxygen. The electricity is used to run an electric MOTOR that moves the vehicle. The difficulty with using fuel cells in motor vehicles is storing enough hydrogen to give the vehicle a decent range between refuelings. No, you don't use water as fuel, because it takes more energy to separate the hydrogen and oxygen than you get when you recombine. If you had that kind of energy source available, it would make more sense to use it directly to power the vehicle.
A hydrogen fuel cell produces electricity not hydrogen. What you built was one of those silly HHO, brown’s gas, hydro-boost, or whatever they are calling it now, generator. And they are all a con. Let’s say your internal combustion engine is extremely efficient, say 50% efficient (which is much better they you’ll ever get with an internal combustion engine) and let’s say everything else is 100% efficient (its not cracking water into hydrogen is only about 40% efficient). So you take 100 units of energy and run it through a car and get back 50 units, now you then take that 50 units and run it through again and you now have 25 units, run it through again and you have 12.5 units. And that’s not counting the loss from the alternator, or producing the hydrogen and it’s assumes you have an extremely efficient engine. (I have a long and detail post that will show you that it can’t and won’t ever break even post and edit and I’ll repost it here.) Remember the first law of thermodynamics basically says the best you can do is break even, the second say you can’t even break even. You are burning more fuel and wasting money with that silly thing on your car. Oh if you followed the plans from a kit, I’m betting they had you either replace the ox sensor with a different one, or put on some electronic device between the ox sensor and the computer to optimize the fuel air mix, all that does is lean out the engine. That will save some fuel, but it will also burn out valves, pistons, and heads as well as violate State and Federal laws.
Popular Mechanics did an interesting comparison of alternative fuels for cars. According to them, Hydrogen would be the equivalent of paying $11 per gallon of gasoline equivalent. The concept of the scam hydrogen cells is to use energy to split hydrogen away from something and requires more energy then can be recovered by using the hydrogen. If your intent is to produce hydrogen by electrolysis, why would you to build a hydrogen cell, you already have one in the form of a lead acid battery, overcharging a lead acid battery produces hydrogen by electrolysis. Electrolysis doesn't get any more efficient then a bunch of metal plates in a sulfuric acid solution with voltage applied across the plates. You and your friend wasted money and time building something you already had in your car. You're confusing the concept of fuel cells with the marketing scam hydrogen cells. Fuel cells react a fuel with an oxidant to produce electricity. Pure hydrogen and pure oxygen is just the easiest and simplest fuel and oxidant to use in a fuel cell. We're probably waiting for the education system to get up to par so that people don't fall for these ridiculous hydrogen cell schemes.
