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Old 27 Sep 2018, 17:22 (Ref:3853004)   #14
Akrapovic
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Originally Posted by GT6 View Post
Sorry if i do not understand but i thought a hydrogen cell engine was an actual engine burning hydrogen instead of petrol/diesel so will never be as quiet as an electrical motor and have an exhaust noise as the gases are expelled.
Negative, these are different things (easy to mix up though, I only did some reading into this last week).

A hydrogen fuel cell engine uses hydrogen and oxygen and combines them in the 'fuel cell' to produce electricity. That's then stored very temporarily in a battery or super-capacitor, and then used to drive electric motors. The only output is water. This is essentially an electric drive, with the electricity produced by a hydrogen and oxygen chemical reaction.

A hydrogen combustion engine uses hydrogen and oxygen but rather than a 'chemical reaction' in a fuel cell, they are burnt in an engine** in a 'traditional' petrol engine style, and that drives the gearbox and drive train etc as we're used to. The only output is water. The reason they don't use hydrogen combustion engines is that for it to work, the hydrogen still has to be in liquid form - which means incredibly cold, and under extreme pressure. The fuel cell does not have this problem. The hydrogen combustion engine block also has to be thicker and heavier than a traditional block, which means the engine weighs more.

** As someone will point out, burning things together is a chemical reaction. What I mean is that in the hydrogen combustion engine, it's more like a traditional petrol engine, which the fuel cell reaction is a completely different type of chemical reaction.
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