Are Hydrogen Powered Cars a Pipe Dream?
For years you have heard about hydrogen powered vehicles being the car of the future, but does a future really exist for these vehicles? On paper hydrogen cars are the total package, they produce water vapor instead of harmful emissions, do not rely on fossil fuels, and hydrogen can even be produced from water though a process called electrolysis. As of April 2007 there were an estimated 200 prototype hydrogen vehicles on the road, so we know the technology is well past the blueprint stages. Why have these cars never made it out of the prototype stages? There are currently two different types of hydrogen powered vehicles, combustion and fuel cell. Combustion hydrogen vehicles would run very much like a traditional combustion motor that you would find in your car today, but it would use hydrogen for fuel instead of gasoline. Fuel cell vehicles work by reacting hydrogen with oxygen to produce water and electricity. The electricity is then used to power an electric traction motor similar
