The race to find an alternative source of fuel may well center around standards of energy and physics that power a device familiar to most: the simple battery. A battery is an electrochemical energy conversion device that converts chemicals stored inside into electricity. In fact, the battery operates on the same principle that makes hydrogen cars work.
It is still not an easy concept for today's automotive layman to understand in a world just now on the brink of unleashing what may well be the largest transportation sea change in world history. With world oil supplies dwindling in political chaos, it is no wonder why scientists are touting hydrogen, one of the most plentiful and cleanest burning elements on earth, as the perfect fuel, and the hydrogen car as the solution to our dependence on oil. Hydrogen cars work, and more and more are understanding this revolutionary fact.
In a hydrogen powered car, proton exchange membrane fuel cells - like batteries, electrochemical energy conversion devices - transform chemical energy freed by an electrochemical reaction of hydrogen and oxygen to electrical energy. Think: water (two parts hydrogen, one part oxygen - H2O) to electricity, an incredible substitute for gas and the gas-guzzling, polluting motors that swarm the world's highways. This is the basic principle that makes hydrogen cars work.
Of course, the fuel cell improves upon the battery that lights our flashlights and powers our automobile ignitions. While a battery eventually dies or needs to be recharged, the fuel cell is kept alive by the constant flow of hydrogen and oxygen. This fuel cell conversion -- transforming hydrogen into electricity through fuel cells -- powers the motors that run the hydrogen fuel cars.
The exact specifics of how hydrogen cars work is not so simple. Consider the four main components of the fuel cell: the anode or the negative electrode (pillar) of the cell, the cathode or positive pillar, the solid electrolyte, a thin-membrane hydrogen ion proton conductor made of polymer (a small porous metal that blocks negative ions and clears positive ions for direct current participation) and the catalyst, a platinum converter that increases the rate of the chemical reaction -- each part significant in the process of the fuel cell power generation that makes hydrogen cars work.
The process begins in the fuel cell when hydrogen is taken in from the atmosphere by the cathode and fueled into the anode pillar. With the help of the catalyst, the anode splits the hydrogen cells, separating electrons which are passed through the electrolyte process into a separate external circuit to form electric current -- moving the motor. Meanwhile, the hydrogen cells return to combine with oxygen into the only byproduct of the reaction: water. For greater power generation, fuel cells are combined together into a "stack."
The technology is tried and true. Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink? Not true. Hydrogen and oxygen can provide more than enough fuel for the world's transportation industry to consume.
