how does hydrogen help us?
147599
it's vital in organisms. hydrogens make up the three most important types of molecules to human beings: carbohydrates, proteins, and fats.\n\nthey are trying to develop cars that run on hydrogen fuel.
80011
hydrolysis. the splitting of the water molecule. or just seperate the densities of the different components of air, then isolate the one that's the density of hydrogen and viola, you have pure hydrogen.
785303
for a few it provides our electricity.  used in hospitals to treat some sick people.\nnuclear radiation from sun gives us warmth and allows plants to grow giving us food.   the unequal absorption of solar radiation gives  us wind letting us fly kites.
443005
The infrastructure to deliver teh hydrogen isn't set up yet.  But the biggest problem is where do you get the hydrogen?  It's not like you can sink a hydrogen well.  You need to liberate it from some other molecule like water and that takes a lot of energy.  Right now the cheapest form of energy is fossil fuel so we would just burn oil to liberate the hydrogen.  \nIt is also a problem to transport.  Needs to be highly compressed or it takes up a lot of space.  That takes more energy.  It is a bit dangerous to carry a compressed gas around.  The tank could rupture but don't worry about H-bomb issues.  Fusion isn't easy to do.  And the Hindenburg was more of a problem with the skin of the blimp.  As far as explosion I would rather be in a car accident with hydrogen then gas.  Once the collision is over the hydrogen will float up and away.  The gas will pool around all the hot engine parts and electric sparks and will be more likely to catch afire and burn you.\n\nThe up side of hydrogen is that it can be reacted in a fuel cell.  This is much more efficient then an internal combustion engine.
456100
How exactly are you splitting the H from the O?   Under high pressure and spraying?  I don't see how that could possibly work.  Cold fusion also has a huge potential for cheap, clean, renewable energy.  But much like what you are talking about, it simply isn't possible with the current technology.  If splitting H and O was so cheap and simple it would be done all of the time.  Electrolysis works, but the energy input makes it unrealistic for creating liquid hydrogen as an energy source.  If you truely have a way to spit the H20 molecule cheaply and efficiently you'd already be a multi-billionaire.
987641
One of the best ideas is a device that uses the motion of the ocean waves to produce energy.  Also, it would be more efficient to simply burn hydrogen as a fuel source as opposed to trying extract the energy created when it bonds with oxygen to create water.  Another is simply burning garbage, I believe a major metropolitan city in Minnesota created a site to do this in the middle of downtown to show that it could be done with minimal side effects on the people living/working there.
732233
Producing hydrogen electrolytically.  A very current topic and of interest to all persons paying for gasoline.
682808
I think you are talking about Roger Billings. http://www.roger.billings.name/\n\nIt seems that he is using hydrogen fuel cells to try to provide power to cars. Hydrogen fuel cells need hydrogen and oxygen to operate.  Billings is working on electrolyzing water to generate hydrogen and oxygen.  Electrolyzing means he applies a large voltage to the water in order to split up the hydrogen and oxygen that naturally form water (H2O).  \n\nI don't know about the involvement of the government or the military.  I think cars that run on hydrogen fuel cells today have to carry a tank of hydrogen in the car, which can be very dangerous.
1158356
By itself, water is an unreactive substance by nature. So you cannot separate oxygen and hydrogen from the water molecules. However, there is only one ay in hich this canbe done: electrolysis.\n\nIt involves the passage of an electric current into a liquid, which naturally conducts electricity. Electrodes are used to pass the electric current. At both the electrodes, gases are evolved, depending upon the liquid.\n\nSome acid or alkali should be added to water for the evolution of gases, namely hydogen and oxygen at the electrodes.\n\n\n\nIt can be mass-produced, but the process is too costly. An application could be to use hydrogen in hydrogen powered cars to replace the more polluting petrol powered cars. \n\nMoreover, oxygen is also obtained by the fractional distillation of liquid air. It involves cooling air by decreasing the its pressure by placing them in special containers, capable of bearing atmospheric pressure. This process is more economical, compared to electrolysis. Liquid oxygen and hydrogen is used to power rockets in order to propel them into space. This process for the production of liquid oxygen and hydrogen is mass produced nowadays to power rocket and hydrogen powered cars. \n\nThanks
139798
I must disagree with gran. Most objections to the overpromotion of hydrogen have nothing to do with affluence or aversion to hiccups. Rather, the naysayers see hydrogen being touted as THE solution, with scant attention being paid to minor details like where the energy to generate hydrogen comes from. \nWith current technology, getting energy from hydrogen would merely be displaced combustion of fossil fuels or nuclear energy. It is either extracted from hydrogen bearing molecules like petroleum products or electrolyzed from water. Either way uses more energy than the combustion of hydrogen will repay, even in a relatively efficient fuel cell. Biological methods for hydrogen generation are being proposed but are unlikely to be economically scalable. Without a clean production technology, hydrogen is a net negative. However, hydrogen is intrinsically a clean fuel, and if clean production, transportation and storage can be arranged, it would improve our lives tremendously.\nOK, with that said, there are many organizations pursuing many alternative energy technologies. "Prepared" for oil depletion they are not. But they are working realistically along the many routes available to mitigate the shock of depletion. These include increased energy efficiency (note that the energy you don't use is equvalent to production of that energy with infinite efficiency!), expanded mass transit, and energy sources like biomass, wind, solar, tidal and hydro. Unfortunately, all of these sources have environmental impacts of their own, and some are "low quality" in the sense that the power intensity is low, requiring extensive investment in land and equipment. There are many opportunities for people with good ideas to help here. Google alternative energy and find many interesting sites.
340221
Depends on what you mean by "new". There are lots of new sources in development, but nothing that is practical or economical yet. Hydrogen fuel cells are clean, efficient and non-polluting. But they are still very expensive and you still need a source of elemental hydrogen to make them work. \n\nOur best bet is hydrogen fusion - thais is what powers the sun. But we are still decades away from a successful commercial power plant. Until then, we are dependant on oil and natural gas.
377913
Consider hydrogen as more of a battery than a fuel source.  Just like all batteries, it takes more energy to produce and charge it than you can get out of it later.  The same is true for coal and oil, except the energy was input millions of years ago, so it's virtually free today...\n\nCurrently some of the cheapest methods of producing hydrogen actually require the use of fossil fuels.  Since the whole point (for many) is to reduce fossil fuel usage, this isn't a very viable option except for helping to cheaply transition to hydrogen.\n\nYou could use a renewable energy source like wind turbines to produce the electricity for electrolysis (splitting water into hydrogen/oxygen), but again there is a lot of waste.  It's far more efficient to just hook the wind turbines to the power grid.  Even that is more expensive than fossil fuels for the time being.\n\nHydrogen fuel cells do seem like a very good idea for vehicles.  It would result in electric cars that can be filled up anywhere without charging for hours between trips.\n\nSo all in all, hydrogen has potential but it is not a solution.  Some other extremely cheap source of energy has to be developed before hydrogen can fill any real-world needs.\n\nEDIT:\n\nI also want to address a couple things in the other answers:\n\n1. Storage of hydrogen has basically been solved.  You don't just compress the gas and put it in a tank.  Instead, it can be chemically bound with lithium nitride, which will store more hydrogen per unit volume than even pure compressed gas.  It is a very weak bond, so it doesn't take much to re-extract the hydrogen.  Undoubtedly there are even better storage mediums to be discovered.\n\n2. Boiling water doesn't produce hydrogen.\n\n3. There is no risk of accidentally creating a hydrogen bomb.  And they have nothing to do with splitting a hydrogen atom.  Hydrogen bombs fuse two or more hydrogen atoms together, which requires temperatures of millions of degrees.  Figure out how to do it at cooler temperatures and win a Nobel Prize. :)
1172901
I'm actually doing research into that right now.  Using water as the hydrogen storage medium is not viable because it requires more energy to split the hydrogen and water than is captured by bringing them back together in a fuel cell.  There are other storage mediums that do not require energy to remove the hydrogen.  The specific medium I am experimenting with is called Sodium Borohydride, NaBH4.  It reacts with water and a metal to produce 4 moles of hydrogen which can then be used in a fuel cell.\n\nThe technology for commercially usable fuel cells will be here sooner than you realize.
946720
I think hydrogen will move faster because Mr of hydrogen molecule is smaller than that of oxygen molecules.
723232
fuel cell technology provides huge energy.....that's why they use it in power plants and space crafts....now Mercedes have their technology to reduce this power and use it in "Buses" and they were succeed to do that in 1998.  Now they are trying to implement this tech. in small cars. but they are facing some difficulties in using Hydrogen because it is very dangerous element.....they are trying to solve this issue by using some bi-products of the Hydrogen...as a result of that ...the efficiency will be less.\nso the limitations are :\n*the Huge energy that will be produced should be compatable with the engine been used.\n**using suitable Hidrogen bi-products for safety issues.\nI hope that I answered your question .....please try to answer mine.....\nRegards,\nFouad
67716
I know that one thing they're using them for is car engines, although that's still in it's early phase.  Please to note, though, you left out the fact that extracting hydrogen from it's chemical friends is, as of yet, not energy efficient.  This is the main downfall of hydrogen fuel cells.  Currently, though, photoenzymes are being developed to solve this problem.  Until then, though, fuel cells are not a good alternative energy source.
1000320
Helium, CO2, Hydrogen and various others.