Hydrogen gas can be produced using a wide variety of methods, several of which could include incineration of trash to produce the heat necessary to release hydrogen from both water and natural gas. While we may not be able to toss a banana peel into the gas tank and head off al a back to the future, that very same banana peel when used in a hydrogen production facility can ultimately be a key ingredient in the production of the fuel that will fill the tank of hydrogen powered cars.

Hydrogen powered cars can utilize hydrogen through several different methods. A hydrogen internal combustion engine powered vehicle utilizes the same engine used in the gasoline-powered production models with the exception of being modified to burn hydrogen fuel.

Existing cars can be retrofitted as hydrogen powered cars with specially designed installations to completely do away with gasoline as the fuel source altough this could be expensive. There are also kits available that show you how to modify gasoline engines so that hydrogen gas is added to the current air gasoline mixture. This modification not only results in dramatically improved emissions, but in strikingly higher gas mileage as well.

Hydrogen powered cars are roughly three times more efficient than their fossil fueled counterparts and have low to zero emissions resulting in a carbon footprint free vehicle. Electric vehicles can be set up to utilize hydrogen as the fuel for on board electrical generation. An electric or fuel cell vehicle has a storage tank for hydrogen gas, which is fed into a fuel cell where the hydrogen is converted into electricity to power all vehicle systems.

Hydrogen fuel is an efficiently produced energy source. While gasoline production in the United States currently requires about three hundred billion gallons of water, the production of the same amount of hydrogen fuel takes about one hundred billion gallons. What this translates to is that hydrogen fuel production only costs roughly half of what it costs to produce the equivalent amount of gasoline.

Every major car maker is testing a different line of hydrogen powered cars. Several of these vehicles will be available in limited numbers starting this year. You will see more of these vehicles as the infrastructure for fueling hydrogen-powered cars is expanded. Several of these car makers are going further by researching home hydrogen production systems, which will be able to supply hydrogen fuel for your car and electricity for your house.

While you might think that safety could be an issue, a hydrogen-powered car is at least as safe as a regular car. High-stress testing has been done to insure that the tanks used for storing the hydrogen fuel can survive even the most serious accidents.

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