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Persuasive Essay On Fuel Cell Cars

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Persuasive Essay On Fuel Cell Cars
The "fuel cell cars" currently being advertised are being touted as "having no emissions except water." In a limited sense that is, in fact, true. However, if the entire fuel cycle for the car is considered it most certainly is not. The fuel used by the fuel cell is hydrogen, very pure hydrogen. Combined with oxygen from the ambient air, the fuel cell produces electricity that powers an electric motor and other devices in the vehicle--just like the battery-driven electric vehicles already on the market. These don't produce any emissions at all. So far, so good. No complicated reciprocating engines, no noise, no smog, minimal maintenance, no global warming.

However, when considering a vehicle its entire energy cycle has to be kept in the picture. All electric vehicles have an energy demand; that energy has to be produced somewhere. For the battery cars it's pretty simple. The same electricity produced by power plants: fossil fuel, solar or wind-driven, that's used …show more content…
A fuel-cell car that produces its hydrogen directly from gasoline had a lot of merit. The system was dependent on the viability of a process called "on-board reforming." Hydrogen is made commercially from oil or natural gas. The fossil fuel is combined with water in a "reforming" reactor, producing mainly hydrogen and carbon dioxide. (No, you can't get completely away from that stuff, only hope to minimize its production.) If a small enough reactor could be built and installed in the car along with the fuel cells and ancillary equipment, it just might beat the internal combustion engine for efficiency and emission control. The main advantage over the currently visualized fuel cell car: no complicated new delivery and on-board storage system for the hydrogen. No new network of pipelines and high-pressure tanks. The system only makes the hydrogen required at the
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