In the UK this week, there was a successful testing of a Ford Focus that was converted to run on hydrogen instead of traditional fuel.  There is now a refueling station for hydrogen cars in the UK, and using hydrogen is an idea whose time has come for many reasons, two of which are that this eliminates traditional fuel costs while eliminating CO2 emissions.

The company who created the hydrogen conversion has also created a home hydrogen refueling station which can create hydrogen from electricity and water.  This successful conversion is a landmark invention.  Success in this area will not only save fuel and eliminate emissions, but its uses can also be expanded to be used in various ways for homes and businesses.

Scientists worldwide have been trying to find ways to create an alternative source of converting hydrogen to fuel.   Before the success of this invention, it was very expensive to convert hydrogen, partially because platinum had to be used as part of the process.  The new process to manufacture hydrogen – a process that was successfully developed by ITM Power – uses a specialized polymer which ends up costing only 1%  of what the old process using platinum used to cost.  This fact, alone, will keep the cost of using the fuel lower and more affordable.

ITM Power used the Ford Focus because it is one of the most widely used cars in Europe.  The converted car has the capability to transfer back to traditional fuel as a backup if the supply of hydrogen runs out.  More tests are in process to see how the conversion can work on vans and trucks.

This successful invention and test gives hope for help in this most difficult fuel crisis.

Tags: alternative fuels, fuel crisis, hydrogen conversion, hydrogen power

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 17th, 2008 at 10:40 pm and is filed under Gas Prices. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.