Hydrogen Powered Model Car
by Bill Kuhl
Video Clip of Hydrogen Fuel Cell Car in Motion - 2.5 mb Mpeg
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As a person that is very much interested in alternative energy, I have been intrigued by the hydrogen fuel cell model car that is in the Pitsco catalog. Recently, I decided to purchase the kit to learn more about this technology that I knew nothing about. As can be seen from the pictures below, there is very little assembly. There are a variety of experiments that can be performed leading up to actually getting the car to move by hydrogen power. |
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Distilled water is separated into hydrogen and water by using electrolysis, applying electrical current to water. In the kit, a photovoltaic cell is included to create the electricity, which demonstrates that another source of alternative energy can be used to separate the oxygen and hydrogen. One of the early experiments is to run the car directly on the photovoltaic cell. The car moves much faster by directly using the photovoltaic cell, I did a video clip of this also. |
Video Clip of Car on Direct Solar Power - 1.3 mb Mpeg
Link to FAQ about Car provided by Manufacturer
Link to Flash Demo of Fuel Cell Workings
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| Fuel Cell experiment kit ordered from Pitsco. | Kit components still covered in shrink wrap. | |
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| Water from the tank is sucked through fuel cell and capped off with no air bubbles. | Photovoltaic solar cell creates electricity that performs electrolysis in the fuel Cell, this creates hydrogen and oxygen gas. | |
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The empty space in the tanks is where the oxygen and
hydrogen gas is stored. As the car runs, the space will again fill with
distilled water. The gases will go back into the fuel cell combining to
create electricity and water. Full tank should run car for 15 to 20
minutes.
Fuel Cell is Proton Exchange
Membrane
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Hydrogen - The Bad News
If hydrogen can be made from water and produces no pollution, why is it still in the experimental stages?
Hydrogen contains little energy per volume, which means a very large tank would be required to store enough hydrogen to power a car for very long. Storing hydrogen in liquid form requires very cold temperatures and high-pressure which makes storage rather difficult.
If you look back through history, all inventions started out as crude versions of the more perfected versions in use today. Thomas Edison experimented with over a hundred light bulbs before finding an element in the bulb that would burn for a few hours. Compare the Wright Brothers first airplane with modern jet-aircraft. Hopefully the challenges of hydrogen power will be overcome also.