Which is why Morgan has developed the ‘Life’ car, an Aero 8 powered by hydrogen.
But the gas has some ‘challenges’; the main one is storage, it needs either very high pressure tanks or cryogenic (-253.7 ºC) liquid storage.
The other problem is that its energy density is quite poor, so you need a lot of it. If it is injected into the port it displaces quite a lot of air, so power is significantly reduced. But of course this could be tackled by using a bigger engine or turbos, yes its true, with hydrogen you can have a guilt free 8 litre V8!
British company ITM Power have developed a home hydrogen generator, simply add water and plug it into the mains, to prove its usefulness they converted a Focus which gets about 100 miles per fill.
And Sunderland university have used CNG (compressed natural gas, mostly methane) equipment, which is similar to an LPG conversion, with a special tank to run a standard car on Hydrogen.
So with all the old cars on the road, surely someone should start a nationwide business converting them to hydrogen? Imagine generating your own hydrogen from a small wind turbine in your back yard! Free fuel, zero carbon emissions and recycling existing cars, it’s a beautiful dream.
Ralph Hosier