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Thank you, I appreciate the response. Presuming we create a low cost process to produce hydrogen and all our cars and power plants were burning hydrogen as fuel

Thank you, I appreciate the response. Presuming we create a low cost process to produce hydrogen and all our cars and power plants were burning hydrogen as fuel, it would not be an extreme statement to say we would have more rain and snow? I kind of like that idea.

ceejayoz 11y ago
Water is used to produce hydrogen, so it'd get cancelled out.
- abfan1127 11y ago
  not necessarily, right? Aren't hydrocarbons (gasoline) used as well?
  - ceejayoz 11y ago
    Interesting, looks like you're right. I'd guess that's unsustainable if consumption ramps up with a bunch of cars on the road, though.
- ars 11y ago
  There actually is more water in the environment now because of all the hydrogen from mined hydrocarbons is now water. But it's probably a pretty minimal amount relatively speaking.
- Johnny555 11y ago
  Not necessarily, right now it's more economical to reform it out of natural gas or other fossil fuel so it's not like hydrogen fuel would take water in that's turned into hydrogen. But even if efficient catalyst driven electrolysis were used to generate hydrogen for fuel, it's not likely that the water would be extracted from the air, they'll suck up liquid ground water that wouldn't necessarily have ended up evaporating into the atmosphere. So the water generated by hydrogen burning cars will end up as extra water vapor that wouldn't have otherwise been emitted. But, gasoline burning cars already emit almost a gallon of water vapor for each gallon of fuel burnt, so depending on the efficiency of the hydrogen cars, there could be a net decrease in water vapor emitted. (I'm not sure how much hydrogen a car would use to travel an equivalent distance as a gasoline powered car)
yongjik 11y ago
Not really. Let me check... according to Wikipedia, hydrogen has energy density of 142 MJ/kg. In 2014, about 136.78 billion gallons of gasoline was consumed in the US, which is about 518 billion liters. Gasoline has energy density of 32.4 MJ/L, so this amounts to 1.68 x 10^19 J = 16.8 EJ. If all this gasoline converts to hydrogen economy, we get 118 billion kilograms of hydrogen (per year), which will produce 1.06 trillion kilograms (or 1.06 billion tons) of water. An estimate for the total amount of water vapor in the atmosphere says 12,900 cubic kilometers, or 12.9 trillion tons. So, not exactly a drop in the bucket, but more like a teaspoon in the bucket, I guess.

ceejayoz 11y ago

Water is used to produce hydrogen, so it'd get cancelled out.

abfan1127 11y ago
not necessarily, right? Aren't hydrocarbons (gasoline) used as well?
- ceejayoz 11y ago
  Interesting, looks like you're right. I'd guess that's unsustainable if consumption ramps up with a bunch of cars on the road, though.
ars 11y ago
There actually is more water in the environment now because of all the hydrogen from mined hydrocarbons is now water. But it's probably a pretty minimal amount relatively speaking.
Johnny555 11y ago
Not necessarily, right now it's more economical to reform it out of natural gas or other fossil fuel so it's not like hydrogen fuel would take water in that's turned into hydrogen. But even if efficient catalyst driven electrolysis were used to generate hydrogen for fuel, it's not likely that the water would be extracted from the air, they'll suck up liquid ground water that wouldn't necessarily have ended up evaporating into the atmosphere. So the water generated by hydrogen burning cars will end up as extra water vapor that wouldn't have otherwise been emitted. But, gasoline burning cars already emit almost a gallon of water vapor for each gallon of fuel burnt, so depending on the efficiency of the hydrogen cars, there could be a net decrease in water vapor emitted. (I'm not sure how much hydrogen a car would use to travel an equivalent distance as a gasoline powered car)

yongjik 11y ago

Not really. Let me check... according to Wikipedia, hydrogen has energy density of 142 MJ/kg. In 2014, about 136.78 billion gallons of gasoline was consumed in the US, which is about 518 billion liters. Gasoline has energy density of 32.4 MJ/L, so this amounts to 1.68 x 10^19 J = 16.8 EJ. If all this gasoline converts to hydrogen economy, we get 118 billion kilograms of hydrogen (per year), which will produce 1.06 trillion kilograms (or 1.06 billion tons) of water. An estimate for the total amount of water vapor in the atmosphere says 12,900 cubic kilometers, or 12.9 trillion tons. So, not exactly a drop in the bucket, but more like a teaspoon in the bucket, I guess.