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Medusa · 07-31-2009, 11:07 PM

The process of burning the hydrogen is never 100% efficient, so some water is lost.

You do bring up a good point though, and we are both wrong to a certain extent. This is what I love about science. If somebody says something you think is wrong, you can rationally explain why you think they are wrong, no personal attacks involved.

As far as desalinization goes, submarines' (and most of the US Navy ships, while out at sea for extended periods of time) fresh water is supplied by desalinization also, but they still have to be careful not to use too much water, because it is not an instantaneous process. Now, land-based desalinization plants work on a larger scale, but only because they serve a larger number of people. The water constraints are still there.

Now, I think running engines, whether partially or completely, on hydrogen is awesome! I support it, but I don't think it is the solution for mass-production. As has been brought up before, there are more efficient ways to run your car on hydrogen, and more efficient ways to run your car period.

And as for the amount of hydrogen in water, I'll cover that real quick. Assuming we are measuring pure water, here are the weights.

Anybody with even a remote knowledge of chemistry either knows are can find out very easily that water weighs 18.015 g/mol. So, in every ~18 grams of water you have 6.02*10^23 particles of oxygen and 1.204*10^24 particles of hydrogen. That is about 2 grams of hydrogen. Scale that up, and you have approximately 11.11 grams of hydrogen per kilogram of water.

One kilogram of water is the definition of a liter, and there are approximately 3.8 liters in one gallon of water. So 11.11 g/L*3.8L/gallon=42.218 g/gallon.

So in one gallon of pure water there is approximately 42.2 grams of hydrogen. One pound is about 454 grams, so there is 0.09 pounds of hydrogen per gallon of water, approximately.

Please, use the metric system for your calculations. Imperial system is just terrible. I only did the pounds conversion for you US imperial freaks. THE REST OF THE WORLD USES THE METRIC SYSTEM, why can't we? It is so much easier and much more precise.

07-31-2009, 11:07 PM	#133 (permalink)
Medusa HAY GUISE! Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Reno, NV Posts: 752 Thanks: 9 Thanked 18 Times in 17 Posts iTrader Rating: (0/0% )	The process of burning the hydrogen is never 100% efficient, so some water is lost. You do bring up a good point though, and we are both wrong to a certain extent. This is what I love about science. If somebody says something you think is wrong, you can rationally explain why you think they are wrong, no personal attacks involved. As far as desalinization goes, submarines' (and most of the US Navy ships, while out at sea for extended periods of time) fresh water is supplied by desalinization also, but they still have to be careful not to use too much water, because it is not an instantaneous process. Now, land-based desalinization plants work on a larger scale, but only because they serve a larger number of people. The water constraints are still there. Now, I think running engines, whether partially or completely, on hydrogen is awesome! I support it, but I don't think it is the solution for mass-production. As has been brought up before, there are more efficient ways to run your car on hydrogen, and more efficient ways to run your car period. And as for the amount of hydrogen in water, I'll cover that real quick. Assuming we are measuring pure water, here are the weights. Anybody with even a remote knowledge of chemistry either knows are can find out very easily that water weighs 18.015 g/mol. So, in every ~18 grams of water you have 6.0210^23 particles of oxygen and 1.20410^24 particles of hydrogen. That is about 2 grams of hydrogen. Scale that up, and you have approximately 11.11 grams of hydrogen per kilogram of water. One kilogram of water is the definition of a liter, and there are approximately 3.8 liters in one gallon of water. So 11.11 g/L*3.8L/gallon=42.218 g/gallon. So in one gallon of pure water there is approximately 42.2 grams of hydrogen. One pound is about 454 grams, so there is 0.09 pounds of hydrogen per gallon of water, approximately. Please, use the metric system for your calculations. Imperial system is just terrible. I only did the pounds conversion for you US imperial freaks. THE REST OF THE WORLD USES THE METRIC SYSTEM, why can't we? It is so much easier and much more precise.