How do Hydrogen-Powered Cars Work? Using [Fuel Cells & IC Engines]

[Music] in this video you'll learn how a hydrogen car works types of hydrogen powered engines pros and cons of hydrogen car does it have any future and whether you should buy it or not time stamps below if you want to skip any of the sections hydrogen-powered engines go back a lot further than you might think more than two centuries ago the french inventor francois isaac de rivas developed a primitive engine that was powered by hydrogen and oxygen and ignited by an electric spark hydrogen vehicles can be powered in two different ways one with a fuel cell system and another with internal combustion engine let's find out how a hydrogen-powered car run with fuel cells so a hydrogen-powered car is powered with an electric motor it consists of a fuel cell a device that takes chemical energy in the form of hydrogen and turns it into electricity that can power an electric motor just like a battery first hydrogen stored in a tank that is thick walled and crash tested and usually under the rear seat is mixed with air and pumped into the fuel cell inside the cell a chemical reaction extracts electrons from the hydrogen the leftover hydrogen protons move across the cell and combine with oxygen from the air to produce water meanwhile the electrons create electricity which charges a small storage battery used to power an electric drivetrain just like in an electric vehicle this is why the vehicles are called fuel cell electric vehicles as compared to the battery electric vehicles which are seen increasingly on our roads already the biggest difference between fuel cell and battery evs like the tesla car is the source of electricity electric cars run on batteries charged electrically even from solar panels but hydrogen-powered cars produce their own electricity they have their little power plant on board that's the fuel cell and now let's find out how a hydrogen car run with an internal combustion engine these types of vehicles are different from hydrogen fuel cell vehicles due to the combustion process the hydrogen ic engine is a modified version of the conventional gasoline-powered engine in this way the combustion process is similar to that of the other high-temperature combustion fuels such as gasoline diesel or natural gas hydrogen engines are actually similar to gas-powered motors in a lot of ways they both use a four-stroke design for intake compression ignition and exhaust and both make the same sorts of sound [Music] the main difference is in the exhaust system the absence of carbon means that no co is produced eliminating the main greenhouse gas emissions of a conventional petroleum engine instead of toxic nitrogen gases hydrogen motors produce water as the main byproduct of their combustion cycle because of the heat also produced by the engine there are still some harmful emissions but not nearly as much as a normal gas engine produces therefore hydrogen engines are not considered zero emissions the downside is that hydrogen is difficult to handle due to the very small molecular size of the hydrogen atom hydrogen is able to leak through many solids the remaining hydrogen gas mixed with air is potentially explosive hydrogen has so far struggled to deliver on its initial promise as an alternative road transport fuel but it is a topic that refuses to go away there is still great potential in its use in hydrogen fuel cells to generate emissions free electricity there are hydrogen cars on uk roads and while you might be hard-pressed to find one right now manufacturers like toyota honda and hyundai have already produced their hydrogen models the hydrogen is a cleaner fuel than petrol or diesel it is completely emission free when converted into fuel cell systems to generate electricity hydrogen is much less fussy than petrol or diesel mixing and burning fully and efficiently in a much wider range of air to fuel ratios with the fuel cell the vehicle contains much of the hydrogen tank fuel cells as well as electric motors all combined into a corresponding unit a hydrogen ic engine simplifies the hardware as it is essentially the good old combustion engine that has been converted to run on hydrogen existing engines can be adapted to use hydrogen instead of petrol or diesel by changing some components such as the fuel delivery system and spark plugs an example being toyota's development of a hydrogen-powered three-cylinder racing engine taken from the gr yuris and used to power a specially developed corolla sport entered in the fuji 24 hours how do you refuel a hydrogen car a hydrogen refueling station looks a lot like a petrol station in germany the u.s and other countries hydrogen refueling pumps are located at conventional petrol stations you can fill it like petrol or diesel car a hydrogen bowser consists of a pump with a nozzle that clamps onto the car once the seal has been made hydrogen gas begins to fill the tank if the seal is not attached it will not start pumping making sure there is no leakage hydrogen refueling stations can fill a typical hydrogen car tank in about five minutes this is an advantage over battery powered cars which can take a lot longer to charge is hydrogen the future of cars hydrogen is the most abundant element on the planet and it is also the cleanest type of fuel having powered engines long before 1807 however hydrogen hasn't really taken off in the motoring world many manufacturers have experimented with the technology and while some have committed to producing hydrogen-powered vehicles in small numbers mass uptake is still a long way off meanwhile sales of electric cars continue to grow with battery electric vehicles selling 162 percent more every year compared with previous year and with such kind of interest manufacturers can afford to put money in evs on a niche technology like hydrogen another reason for the struggle for hydrogen vehicles is the existing infrastructure there are only a small number of hydrogen-fueled stations nowhere near enough that drivers can operate with petrol and diesel hydrogen vehicles are less efficient than ev's because hydrogen does not occur naturally it must be extracted then compressed in the fuel tank at this point in time the only fuel cell evs in production are the hyundai nexo crossover and toyota mirai along with honda recently pulled the plug on the clarity fuel cell ev both hyundai and toyota use hydrogen to power the fuel cell which through a chemical reaction converts energy into electricity and powers an electric motor to propel the vehicle but it is a complicated process and the application is expensive now toyota is proposing a more direct and almost clean solution in the form of an internal combustion engine that runs on hydrogen so what are some of the advantages of hydrogen vehicles faster refueling compared to recharging an electric car a hydrogen vehicle can be fully fueled in three to five minutes no harmful emissions the only thing is to be emitted from a hydrogen fuel cell car is water an impressive range with a range of around 300 miles per tank hydrogen cars are on a par with many conventional vehicles good efficiency levels fuel cell powertrains are much more efficient at getting energy out of hydrogen than traditional cars are at getting energy out of petrol or diesel and what about the disadvantages of hydrogen cars refueling locations there are currently only 17 refueling stations in the uk and each station costs 1.3 million pounds to build expensive although the cost of fueling a hydrogen car is similar to traditional fuels developing the technology isn't cheap and nor is storing or moving hydrogen itself perceived safety risk hydrogen is flammable but then again so is petrol and that hasn't stopped us from driving millions of petrol cars but did you know hydrogen cars densely packed with their energy storage they are generally able to achieve long ranges reaching 300 miles at a time whereas most fully electric vehicles can travel between 100 to 200 miles on a single charge watch this video to know more about electric cars and how they works [Music] you

Channel: The Engineers Post

Views: 292,335

Keywords: how does hydrogen fuel cell work, how hydrogen cars work, how hydrogen engine works, fuel cell, hydrogen, hydrogen fuel cell, hydrogen car, hydrogen internal combustion engine, hydrogen vs electric cars, hydrogen vs petrol, how it works

Id: NoPLxldm_ME

Length: 10min 21sec (621 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 05 2021