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Imagine a world without fossil fuels.
Currently fossil fuels support our whole way of life. Fossil fuels are
non-renewable resources such as coal, oil and natural gas. Fossil fuels provide
electricity and heating for homes, businesses and factories, and power for our
transportation. The Canadian economy is based on fossil fuels.
Unfortunately, when fossil fuels are used they produce harmful pollutants
such as carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and sulphur compounds. We need to change
our source of energy so we don't keep destroying our atmosphere. Hydrogen
fuel cell cars are a part of preparing for the future.
Hydrogen cars are
no longer a fantasy, they are a reality. Every major car company in the
world, such as BMW, Mazda, Ford and Toyota, are starting to
put more money into researching and producing alternatives to fossil fuelled
cars. Many people predict that with government help, we could switch
to hydrogen as our major transportation fuel within 10 years.
Hydrogen cars eliminate
harmful emissions and produce only water vapour as exhaust (See Fig. 1). Ballard
(a fuel cell development company) executives promoted their concept by
drinking the emissions of their fuel cell. Our cars today release harmful
emissions and chemicals into our air, land and water. As the number of
vehicles increases globally, pollution becomes an ever increasing problem
worldwide. The automobile is one of the major contributors to pollution (See
Fig. 2).
Another reason to
change to hydrogen fuel for transportation is that our reliance on fossil
fuels is becoming a problem. One big problem is the shrinking amount of
fossil fuels. As the supply dwindles, the price will increase drastically.
Our way of life (low cost transportation) will become very expensive. We
would not have to worry about rising gas prices and it's economic
disadvantages with hydrogen cars because the fuel supply would be local.
On our webpage, we will provide background
information about hydrogen to help you understand why hydrogen is a
potential new fuel source. We will discuss the pros and cons of using
hydrogen as a fuel. As well, a basic understanding of how a hydrogen car
works and examples of prototypes and production vehicles will be provided.
In the end, we will discuss a plan for further development of hydrogen fuel
car technology.
Project Information:
Grade Grouping: 7-9
Team Size: 2
Subject Area: Engineering
Project Type: Descriptive
Project Level: Standard
Project Format: Traditional
Software Tools Used: Photoshop 6.0, Microsoft Front Page
Hardware Tools Used: None
Special Skills: None
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