RC Car Runs on the Hydrogen of Soda Can Tabs

[w4t634wtgsg]

metals + base/acid = stuff + H2.....we all learn this in gradeschool chemestry....

I dont know the environmental impact of billions millions of gallons of sodium aluminate if we somehow started using this en mass.....but its probably bad to say the least.

 

[Pawessum16]

I don't know about all of you, but.... I WANT THAT RC CAR!!!!!!!!!!! The point of this isn't to try and make a whole car run off of it, but to demonstrate that in small scale applications it's very feasible. Aluminum is very plentiful, and NaOH is relatively cheap. For an RC car it definitely beats having to deal with gas engines (or in my case 10-15 minute batteries).
[citation][nom]koga73[/nom]The problem with hydrogen fuel is it takes more energy to produce the hydrogen than the amount of energy the hydrogen contains. It's not a viable energy source until somebody comes up with a more efficient way to produce hydrogen.[/citation]
The problem with any type of fuel is that it takes more energy to produce than what it contains. We're lucky to find fuels such as oil and coal just sitting around. I think the key is to use highly efficient nuclear energy (fission generated here or fusion from the sun), and use that to store energy in mobile chemical energy sources such as hydrogen (from water in the oceans) or your traditional batteries (which are a lot nastier for the environment but great for small applications).

 

[JohnnyLucky]

Very Kool!

 

[Guest]

sodium hydroxide costs about $5 per pound
http://www.fortune3.com/chemstore/Chemicals_S_Z-Sodium_Hydroxide.html
gasoline cost about 63 cents per pound

 

[cburke82]

So I know aluminum is expensive to produce. But we use it all day every day would we need to use new metal? Could we not just use disguarded metal and this would be a form of recycling? Also would this work with any other kinds of metal? Slayer perhaps lol JK

 

[sadamick]

I don't see why hydrogen can't be made cheaply at home by cracking H2O apart with electricity from solar cells. So manufacturing it isn't the problem. The real problem then is how to safely store it. Then hydrogen becomes your new method for storing energy captured through solar cells instead of batteries. You could then use the hydrogen in a fuel cell to get the electricity back for powering your home or car. Or, if fuel cells are an issue because they're too costly to manufacture or require special rare metals then you could just burn the hydrogen in an engine.

 

[memadmax]

Surprisingly, the EPA is the entity that is stonewalling technology such as natural gas/hydrogen autos from becomeing "mainstream" NOT oil companies as some may percieve.

The EPA shutdown ALL aftermarket sales in the US of Natural Gas DIY kits for converting your vehicle to Natural Gas... google it.

 

[cronik93]

[citation][nom]koga73[/nom]The problem with hydrogen fuel is it takes more energy to produce the hydrogen than the amount of energy the hydrogen contains. It's not a viable energy source until somebody comes up with a more efficient way to produce hydrogen.[/citation]

What? From what I was reading....Sodium Hydroxide+Water+can tabs=Hydrogen made right then and there...

 

[neoverdugo]

Men of little faith, there is a way to produce hydrogen without the overdose of power. But the bastards of Roshcheild and Rockefellers are making sure that no one discloses that procedure so that we can ALL say fuck you and your bloody oil monopoly.

 

[Aionism]

[citation][nom]pawessum16[/nom](or in my case 10-15 minute batteries).[/citation]
Something this dinky and slow could probably last an hour or more on a $20 5000mAh battery.

 

[farleytron]

Even water is a limited commodity in a lot of areas in the United States... cracking water into hydrogen using solar cells would be a bad idea.

 

[Mathos]

Something you gotta think about though. 1 Gallon of gas ways 6.25lbs at room Temperature. In a remote control car like that, how long would said vehicle run off of regular gas or alcohol based motor. Then we can figure out whether something like this would be worthwhile to make into a larger or full size motor.

 

[billyboy999]

[citation][nom]koga73[/nom]The problem with hydrogen fuel is it takes more energy to produce the hydrogen than the amount of energy the hydrogen contains. It's not a viable energy source until somebody comes up with a more efficient way to produce hydrogen.[/citation]
Are you serious? Name one thing that takes LESS energy to produce than the amount of energy it contains. Congrats, you've got yourself a perpetual motion machine.
Producing hydrogen via electrolysis is plenty efficient and not very expensive material-wise; you don't even need a very high voltage, and you can make a simple exploding bubble machine at home. All you need is a plastic container, potassium hydroxide (one time cost), and high quality stainless steel plates/wires. Like someone else said above, the problem is storing and transporting it. Also, even if you liquify hydrogen, gasoline still has better energy density.

 

[belardo]

That car is NAKED!

 

[delazaren]

[citation][nom]mikem_90[/nom]I'm sure if you factor the energy needed to make the oil in the first place instead of calculating it as 'free' we'd see a very different arrangement of numbers.[/citation]

wow! Should we factor the energy used to crate the Sun too?
There is a qualitative difference between the energy that we need to spend now to produce the materials discussed here and the energy/time Nature used in converting organic matter into oil.

Solar, wind, oil, wave, geothermal energy is free in the sense that it doesn't require extra energy to be spent now to create it, only to capture it and use it.

 

[enforcer22]

[citation][nom]warezme[/nom]didn't look like it in this video, a few discarded aluminum can tabs some water and sodium hydroxide. Unless sodium hydroxide is exquisitely expensive and difficult to manufacture I don't see what your talking about.[/citation]

What he means to say is hydrogen fuel cells only put out as much energy as it took to make them not more unless something has drastically changed since last i read about it. However hydrogen is easy to make. A simple reaction like this is something i read about a year or so ago where aluminum striped of its protective coating would react with water and strip the hydrogen out under its own "power" it was a idea they had to run cars a while back. Reminds me of the guy in the 80's who made a car that ran of hose water until he was "asked" not to make them or market them to anyone. Nice thing about hydrogen fuel is its a real renewable fuel.

 

[nukemaster]

It is still a cool toy either way.....

 

[dark_lord69]

[citation][nom]farleytron[/nom]Even water is a limited commodity in a lot of areas in the United States... cracking water into hydrogen using solar cells would be a bad idea.[/citation]
ok, but water is the most abundant resource on our planet. Make it some where else and ship the hydrogen gas it to places that don't have water readily available. I mean seriously.. what do you think they do with gasoline today?

 

[sinfulpotato]

This "alternative fuel" is more costly then combustion.

 

[ntrceptr]

People have made great advancements in converting H20 into hydrogren even with our ineffecient solar cells. Also they have advanced fuels cells using nano-tech and non-platinum catalysts to generate power much more effeciently. Problem with all this is, the greedy business men have not exuasted all their options for making profit from Oil (yet!).
Everything works the same, we could have much faster computers too but they have to release processors in increments so they can profit as much as possible before the next improvement. No tech will ever make a giant leap forward due to greed!