If we can use hydrogen to power electric motors, why can’t we use water to run a car?
If we can use hydrogen to power electric motors, why can’t we use water to run a car?
Can’t you just break down water, use the hydrogen to power the electric motor, and I don’t think O2 as a byproduct is bad, now this is of course an ideal condition, but why hasn’t this been looked into more?
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Water is the exhaust product. Once you have water, the potential energy in the original chemical mix has already been released.
H2 + O --> H2O + energy (in the form of heat or electric potential)To break down water you have to reverse the reaction and put that energy back in. That's how electrolysis works:
H2O + energy (in the form of electric potential) --> H2 + OAnd since no thermodynamic process is 100% efficient, you will lose some of the energy each time you go back and forth between these reactions.
Out of curiosity, would you end up with the same resultant amount of water before and after hydrolysis? I'm aware some energy would be lost, but would hydrolysis actually decrease the amount of water? (sorry if this a dumb question, but I haven't actually seen it explicitly answered before)
Mass is conserved. If you split water into hydrogen and oxygen, then combine them back into water, you will have the same amount of water as when you started.
That's assuming you don't have leaky equipment in your lab, of course.
OK, thanks for the answer, it been bugging me for a bit and I couldn't definitively answer it. I've heard the argument that something hydrolysis would result in fresh water being decreased, good to know my first feeling (that that argument was bs) is true.