Conclusion

            In conclusion I would describe my experiment as a successful one. During the beginning of the experiment I noticed that when I was testing to see whether or not I could electrolyze water using hydrochloric acid it wouldn’t work. The same result occurred for vinegar. On the other hand, the lemon juice managed to produce a very small amount of hydrogen gas. The chemical that worked very well was sulphuric acid. When mixed with water it managed to produce a lot of hydrogen and oxygen. Another trend that I found was that more hydrogen and oxygen was produced when I was using a solar panel outside to electrolyze water than when I was using conventional electricity. An observation that was mentioned when doing the experiment using lemon juice is that it began to thicken when the gas was produced leaving remnants of the juice particles in the electrolysis equipment. Another observation about the chemicals was that with a higher concentration of sulphuric acid, the gas production speed would go up. The last trend would be that the revolutions per minute were consistent and stayed the same because this certain hydrogen fuel cell only puts out a certain amount of energy. The significance of these trends is that this way other scientists will know how to produce hydrogen and oxygen faster using the solar panel and will be able to use these facts and results to their benefits. The knowledge gained by the data that I have observed is that I now know the best chemical for the process of electrolysis, which electricity source works best and the concentration of the type of acid that is best suited for quick hydrogen production. That concludes my experimental observations.

Sources of error

            Although this experiment was successful I wouldn’t say it was perfect. A few flaws had taken place. One of them included trying to electrolyze hydrochloric acid. When electrolyzing with water, it has the ability to produce another excess gas called chlorine, which is extremely dangerous when inhaled. To avoid this I used a very low concentration of HCl, but in the end it did not produce any gas at all. Another source of error would be using a thick blend of lemon juice. This is because when it is electrolyzed it produces a by-product, which is a thick layer that is produced at the top of the liquid preventing the gases from rising to the top. The last source of error would be not taking care to open the gas chambers that held the gases slowly to make sure that no liquids enter the fuel cell. In the future ways to eliminate the danger of producing chlorine gas is not to electrolyze water that contains hydrochloric acid at all to eliminate all unnecessary risks involved. Another thing I could do is to use a thinner lemon juice product than a thicker one to avoid any by- products. Last of all the experimenter must take care to open the knobs on the electrolysis equipment slowly in order to prevent the liquid from entering the tubes and from damaging the hydrogen fuel cell.

Practical Applications

            There are many practical applications for our science experiment. The electricity produced could be used to replace fossil fuels in vehicles and power plants. It could also be used in farm machines, in heating and cooling houses as well as in manufacturing industries. 

The main significance of my results is that hydrogen can be produced and used immediately without being stored by using a solar panel to electrolyze water, which will produce hydrogen and oxygen to power a fuel cell and then produce electricity. The experiment was successful and this produced a significant result that included many advantages.  An advantage is that since hydrogen is highly explosive, it can now be used without storage. 

 The results of the experiment leads to the question of how to apply it in the commercial set up. I propose that for commercial setup or another experiment, the hydrogen fuel cell vehicles could be fitted with several solar panels around the vehicle. The cars only fuel will be water and the water will be electrolyzed using the electricity produced from a solar panel. The gases will then go to a fuel cell located inside the car that will power the engine, which will power the vehicle. The only negative idea is that there must be a lot of funding that will have to go into the project. This idea would be wonderful for a mini model car to be experimented on to test and find out the results. 

The recent invention of the spray-on solar cells would make this a very viable project for further research since they absorb light even during the night. The spray on solar panels would be useful on cars and other real world products to help capture and obtain the sun’s useful electricity.

The experiment could also be carried out using cooling fans instead of a motor for use especially in homes that have no central cooling.

These are ideas of how this experiment can be used in the real world and how the environment can benefit from less vehicle emissions.