This post , part of a series we ’re running all aboutelectric railroad car , was written by Christopher Lampton from HowStuffWorks.com .
Most people know by now what an electric car is . It ’s a car that run on abattery - poweredelectric motor . Unlike most cable car on the road today , it lacks an home burning engine and expend electricity as its fuel rather than gasoline . Because it does n’t burn fossil fuels to make itself run , it does n’t bring on any defilement while it ’s in mathematical process . This , at least in theory , take a leak electric cars a very unripe form of transportation .
But what in the world is a hydrogen fuel cellphone car ? It ’s also a kind of electric car . It runs on a motor powered by electricity . What do it different from a shelling - electric vehicle ( or BEV ) is where the electrical energy derive from . rather of a barrage , a atomic number 1 fuel cell car has , well , a hydrogen fuel jail cell . This is a twist that rent atomic number 1 , the most abundant component in the macrocosm , and generates electricity from it while the car is ladder . In effect , a H fuel cellular phone is a variety of battery that make electricity on the fly ball .
To see how this works , have ’s take a quick refresher course course in high school chemistry . ( Do n’t worry ; we ’ll make this as painless as possible . ) Hydrogen is the pocket-sized , lightest atom in world . A received - issue hydrogen molecule dwell of two things : a proton ( which has a cocksure electric charge ) and an electron ( which has a negative galvanic charge ) . The atomic number 1 fuel cell unclothe these two things aside , so that the electrons are free to go their own way and become the electrical energy that runs the car ’s motor . ( Electricity Is nothing more a continuous flow of electrons . ) Meanwhile , the proton becomes a H ion – that is , a hydrogen atom with a positive electrical flush – and will bond together with any oxygen atoms in the neighbourhood to form H2O . ( water supply – or H2O as the chemistry geek call it – is nothing more than two H ions with an oxygen atom seize . ) This process releases a caboodle of heat , so the water becomes steam and the steam becomes the exhaust system of the hydrogen fuel cell .
The great thing – and the gullible thing – about both electric cars and hydrogen fuel mobile phone cars is that they do n’t produce any pollution at the tailpipe ( unless you see the steam being produce by the hydrogen fuel cell to be a form of befoulment ) . So no matter whether you decide to buy an galvanizing car or a H fuel cell car ( though the latter is n’t likely to be widely available to customer for quite a few years yet ) , you ’ll be helping to save the earth ’s atmosphere , right ?
Well , not exactly . While neither character of car produce pollution at the tailpipe , they both have the potential to produce defilement when their " fuel " is produce . The fuel that an galvanic car runs on is electricity ( which is used to charge the battery ) and the fuel that a hydrogen fuel cell machine runs on is hydrogen ( which is used to generate electricity ) . That electricity and that H have to come from somewhere . The electricity will mostly come from power plant that inthe absolute majority of cases are bite dodo fuels to produce that electricityand those fogey fuels will do the same pollution that the electrical car is intend to deflect . The hydrogen for the fuel cadre vehicle will most likely be bring about in the future by electrolysis , which involves return electrical energy through water . And that electricity will hail from the same potentially polluting sources as the electricity used to charge the electric elevator car ’s barrage .
The the true is , electric cars and hydrogen fuel cell cars both have the potential to be marvellously non - polluting forms of transportation , but to make them truly green we ’ll require to move away from method of bring forth electricity that burn fossil fuel . Instead of burning ember to sire electrical energy , we ’ll take to concentrate on environmentally unclouded methods like hydropower , solar power , wind force and nuclear power , which produce little or no polluting expelling . When the day come that most of our electricity come from these sources , the galvanising car and the hydrogen fuel mobile phone motorcar will both be about complete physical body of unripened , non - polluting transportation .
