We’d never run out because that car is supposedly a perpetual motion machine that converts water to hydrogen and oxygen, then burns it back into water.
The water is split via electrolysis preferably using electricity from renewable sources. The stored hydrogen is then burned in the cars fuel cell using oxygen from the surrounding air. There is nothing magical about it.
Because that’s not what hydrogen fuel cells do. Yes, you could make a hydrogen ICE car, but that’s not a fuel cell car. Fuel cell cars use supplied hydrogen run through a grid to combine with atmospheric oxygen and make electricity and drive electric motors. I had the same misunderstanding for like a decade. Hydrogen is nowhere near energy-dense enough to be feasible as an ICE fuel
The urban legend usually just leaves the electrolysis part blurry. They vaguely call it a machine to process or prepare the water, and completely ignore the electricity going in. I.e. hydrogen cars, being “suppressed” by the government.
The urban legend goes back a long time. I first encountered someone telling specifics around 15 years ago, but the vague concept is much older. It’s similar to the legend that there’s a specially tuned carburator (yeah, that old) that would give you 100mpg, but it was killed by oil companies.
We’d never run out because that car is supposedly a perpetual motion machine that converts water to hydrogen and oxygen, then burns it back into water.
The water is split via electrolysis preferably using electricity from renewable sources. The stored hydrogen is then burned in the cars fuel cell using oxygen from the surrounding air. There is nothing magical about it.
fuel cells do not burn hydrogen.
Why not? Isn’t burning a common term for exothermic oxidation? As in 2H2 + O2 -> 2H2O + heat
Because that’s not what hydrogen fuel cells do. Yes, you could make a hydrogen ICE car, but that’s not a fuel cell car. Fuel cell cars use supplied hydrogen run through a grid to combine with atmospheric oxygen and make electricity and drive electric motors. I had the same misunderstanding for like a decade. Hydrogen is nowhere near energy-dense enough to be feasible as an ICE fuel
Yeah, but this isn’t about real hydrogen fuel cell cars. This is about the urban legends about cars that run off water.
The urban legend usually just leaves the electrolysis part blurry. They vaguely call it a machine to process or prepare the water, and completely ignore the electricity going in. I.e. hydrogen cars, being “suppressed” by the government.
The urban legend goes back a long time. I first encountered someone telling specifics around 15 years ago, but the vague concept is much older. It’s similar to the legend that there’s a specially tuned carburator (yeah, that old) that would give you 100mpg, but it was killed by oil companies.