Washington: Just imagine that instead of spewing out a noxious mixture of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, benzene and particulates, your car’s exhaust emitted only water. Yes, that’s right, just good old H2O, in a form so pure you could drink it.It might sound like science fiction, but it is in fact reality, in the form of a new car that will appear on our streets later this year called the Toyota Mirai, reported the Daily Mail. Instead of being filled up with petrol or diesel, the Mirai (the word is Japanese for “future”) is powered by the most common element in the universe — hydrogen.
The gas is inserted into the car’s tank just as you might use a petrol pump, and then, through the wonders of a fuel cell — which produces a chemical reaction between the hydrogen and oxygen in the air — it is converted into electricity, which in turn powers the car. Incredibly, the only by-product of this process is water. Of course, if you mention hydrogen as a means to power transportation, many people will think of the Hindenburg, the airship which exploded in a vast ball of flames over New Jersey in 1937. But there is an extremely low danger of that happening with a hydrogen car, since the fuel cells are encased in tanks that are bulletproof.
So on the surface, it looks like cars such as the Mirai do have the potential to change the world. Next year, Honda will enter the market, and Ford and Nissan are also exploring the technology. If all motor vehicles ran on hydrogen, then we would remove all the traffic pollution from our cities and streets. The only drawback for the car is the lack of refuelling infrastructure. To address this issue, the United States is setting up hydrogen refilling stations in major industrial and commercial hubs to promote the greener vehicles.
