Pros And Cons Of Hydrogen Fuel Cell Cars

Hybrid cars vs gas cars? The answer depends on your priorities.

Maybe you’re tired of paying high prices at the gas pump or sending U.S. dollars to the Middle East. Perhaps you’re concerned with regards to the environs and the fact that oil is a depleting resource that shouldn’t be wasted sitting in traffic jams.

Whatever your priorities, fuel economy is not the only element to consider when looking at hybrid cars vs gas cars. To make a sound financial decision, you might also want to compare the buy price, tax benefits, insurance, repairs and maintenance costs.

Starting with fuel economy, realize no one gets the numbers posted on new car window stickers. The intermediate driver only gets in regards to 75% of what’s been promised.

And that includes hybrid cars. But hybrids still get much better mileage than conventional gasoline vehicles. Smaller four cylinder models are the only gas cars that come close to hybrids in fuel economy.

The hybrid, however, comes with a higher sticker price than similar gas models. Some are as much as various thousand dollars higher in cost. This extra cost is expected to come down in the near future as buyer demand increments and manufacturers achieve more outstanding economy of scale.

Consumer advocate testing has shown that hybrid savings in fuel economy commonly fails to offset the extra buy price. But, for a heap of buyers, federal and state tax gains may aid make up the difference.

Hybrid cars may also get relief on insurance costs too. Some automobile insurance carriers are now supplying as much as 5% to 10% discounts on hybrid cars. Apparently, preliminary exploration has shown that hybrid car drivers make less insurance adjustment claims and that’s being reflected in their premiums.

Another thing to consider is repair and maintenance. Some believe the new hybrid technology may be too sophisticated for local automati mechanics, necessitating hybrid car owners to always return to the merchant for repair. But that’s not just unfeigned for hybrids. As cars become more electronic, automati mechanics will need a degree in computer science to keep gas cars in tune too.

Hybrid car manufacturers, like Toyota, Honda and Ford, will have to feel convinced with regards to their cars because they offer at least 8 to 10 year warranties on hybrid-specific components. Toyota, for example, reports their battery pack will last for more than 180,000 miles. For the intermediate driver that’s over twelve years.

And, as far as maintenance is concerned, most hybrid elements need no regular maintenance. Of course, you’ll have to alter the oil in the gas engine each 5,000 to 10,000 miles, just as you would in a established car.

One distinct vantage hybrids have is that you won’t need to modify your brake pads as often. Because of their regenerative braking technology, hybrid brake pads last much longer. Prius clients have reported driving as far as 85,000 miles without a replacement. The brake pads of most gas cars last only when it comes to 15,000 miles.

The bottom line for hybrid cars vs. gas cars gets down to your own personal priorities. But, there’s one thing for sure, as buyer demand increments you’re going to see more substitute car future selections at better prices.

Pros And Cons Of Hydrogen Fuel Cell Cars 2

Hydrogen is the quintessential eco-fuel. This invisible, tasteless gas is the most ample factor in the universe. It is the basic building block and fuel of stars and an necessary raw material in innumerable biological and chemical processes. As a altogether nonpolluting fuel, it may hold the answer to growing environmental worries in regards to atmospheric accumulation of carbon dioxide and the resultant Greenhouse Effect. In this book Peter Hoffmann describes current exploration toward a hydrogen-based economy. He presents the history of hydrogen energy and discusses the environmental dangers of continued dependence on fossil fuels.Hydrogen is not an energy source but a carrier that, like electricity, must be manufactured. Today hydrogen is fabricated by “decarbonizing” fossil fuels. In the future it will be derived from water and solar energy and perhaps from “cleaner” versions of nuclear energy. Because it may be made by a potpourri of methods, Hoffmann argues, it may be effortlessly adapted by dissimilar countries and economies. Hoffmann acknowledges the social, political, and economic difficultnesses in replacing current energy schemes with an wholly new one. Although the procedure of converting to a hydrogen-based economy would be complex, he demonstrates that the environmental and health gains would far outweigh the costs.

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1307020 in Books
• Published on: 2002-09-09
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: .83″ h x 5.96″ w x 8.96″ l, .93 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 301 pages

Pros And Cons Of Hydrogen Fuel Cell Cars 2 Pic

Pros And Cons Of Hydrogen Fuel Cell Cars 2 Image

Pros And Cons Of Hydrogen Fuel Cell Cars 2 Pic

Pros And Cons Of Hydrogen Fuel Cell Cars 2 Pic

72 of 74 people found the following review helpful.
A Good Introduction To Hydrogen
By Kevin Spoering
Peter Hoffmann is the editor and publisher of “The Hydrogen & Fuel Cell Letter”, and this book focuses on the myriad uses of fuel cells, in great detail. But other uses of hydrogen are covered to some extent also. Topics discussed are automotive, utility, food production, home heating, hydrogen production, and many others. Hoffman notes in this volume time and again that hydrogen is an energy carrier, like electricity, and not an energy source, so it must be produced via energy sources such as coal, wind, solar, and nuclear, among others. Hoffmann does a very good job in this area, and the generation of greenhouse gasses is a central theme of this book, basically how we can generate hydrogen with little or no carbon dioxide buildup. As you may know, the combustion of hydrogen with oxygen only produces water. Safety of hydrogen use is another area extensively covered. The book begins with Hoffmann giving a history of hydrogen use and research over the past 200 years or so, right up to the present time, politics having an effect on our energy future also, of course. Senator Tom Harkin gives readers a very good foreward to the book.

One area of great interest to me that was mentioned in this book is the possibility of using atomic hydrogen (this is hydrogen in it’s disassociated state, not the molecular hydrogen) as rocket fuel, as Hoffmann says, a specific impulse of over 1000 seconds may be achieved, well above today’s rocket engines, if it can be safely stabilized. I wish this topic was covered better than the brief sketch Hoffmann gave it.

The final chapter of the book attempts to extrapolate the future use of hydrogen. Various experts are quoted by Hoffmann as to what we may expect in the decades ahead with regards to hydrogen use. Hoffmann does himself say that the existing energy infrastructure may be difficult to replace due to the economic inertia of change, and many decades may be required, in the United States it’s vast coal reserves may preclude widespread hydrogen use idefinitely. Overall, the volume is a good introduction to energy if sometimes a little short on the science. At the back of the book there are extensive notes with references to further reading for those desiring to do so.

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful.
Half the story
By A. A Slezak
This book has a lot of useful information but the problem is not the material but the book could use an editor. The story continually jumps back and forth. When the book uses comparisons it goes from Joules to BTUs then Gallons to Liters so you never seem to compare apples to apples or the book should have had a conversion table. It’s as if the author is afraid to tell the truth of how it might be a little expensive now to convert, but eventually it will be cost effective. The book also has no diagrams, or graphs that would explain fuel cells or cost effectiveness. …

The author seems to shy away from nuclear power as a solution for creating hydrogen. I think it would be a great interim solution where you could put the nuclear reactor on sites off shore or in the Great Lakes so you would have a supply of water and pump all the hydrogen and electricity produced to the city. The hydrogen could be sent to fuel cell power plants and fuel stations for vehicles. Eventually from the money made from this move on to geothermal methods.

I don’t want to seem down on this book because it gave me a lot of good information the best part was the different ways that they can create hydrogen. Hydropower, Wind, Solar, Photovoltaic, Biomass, Advanced Solar concepts, orbiting solar mirrors, converting thermal energy from oceans and Geothermal. The one that I left out that I thought was the coolest was the Giant Solar Chimneys. I found out that they are actually making one in Australia; I can only hope that it works. I liked the part with the solar mirrors and why they didn’t work, that was kind of funny.

The book never explains why they are not doing some of these things. I guess because of the cost but it is not clear. The best and safest way would be to produce hydrogen is geothermal but the book never explains why we don’t do it.

The chapter on the uses for hydrogen started out interesting but ends with a walk into the cosmos with the SETI stuff. It was parenthetical information that the author wanted us to be aware of that did not belong in this book.

This book seem like a confused mass of projects that never seemed to get off the ground and a couple that could be a solution for the future. I wish the book was organized so that the history came first and then focus in on various areas, production, types of fuel cells, different forms of hydrogen, infrastructure, present uses, future use and the road ahead and what are the possible type of plans for the future.

I wish the book could have recommended more books to read on the subject that could answer some of these questions.

I guess I was looking for more clear cut solutions.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful.
Somehow disappointing
By Emmanuel Lambert
This book contains lots of valuable information and is certainly worth reading. But at the same time, I had expected more of it. It describes too many factual details about the history of hydrogen’s use in various applications and gives too few technical information about hydrogen as a fuel. The book does not give a very thorough analysis of how a hydrogen economy could be established, how those massive quantities of hydrogen will be produced in a way that is both environment friendly and realistic, why or why not to use nuclear power to do so, etc.
Rather, it leaves a lot of open questions and does not give answers to the issues that really matter (e.g. if hydrogen is produced through reforming of traditional carbon fuels, what to do with the carbon then at the production plant).
Nevertheless, the book is certainly worth reading… I think it’s one of the only serious books on hydrogen at this time.

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