Topic 2
Car manufactures and governments have been eagerly seeking a replacement for the automobile’s main source of power, the internal-combustion engine. By far the most promising alternative source of energy for cars is the hydrogen-based fuel-cell engine, which uses hydrogen to create electricity that, in turn, powers the car. Fuel-cell engines have several advantages over internal-combustion engines and will probably soon replace them.
One of the main problems with the internal-combustion engine is that it relies on petroleum, either in the form of gasoline or diesel fuel. Petroleum is a finite resource; someday, we will run out of oil. The hydrogen can be derived from various plentiful sources, including natural gas and even water. The fact that fuel-cell engines utilize easily available, renewable resources makes them particularly attractive.
Second, hydrogen-based fuel cells are attractive because they will solve many of the world’s pollution problems. An unavoidable by-product of burning oil is carbon dioxide, and carbon dioxide harms the environment. On the other hand, the only byproduct of fuel-cell engines is water.
Third, fuel-cell engines will soon be economically competitive because people will spend less money to operate a fuel-cell engine than they will to operate an internal-combustion engine. This is true for one simple reason: a fuel-cell automobile is nearly twice as efficient in using its fuel as an automobile powered by an internal-combustion engine is. In other words, the fuel-cell powered car requires only half the fuel energy that the internal-combustion powered car does to go the same distance.
Topic 2
The reading is correct in pointing out the problems associated with oil powered cars. Yes, oil is a finite resource, and yes, burning oil harms the environment. However, the reading is a way too optimistic at the assessment of hydrogen-based fuel-cell engines. Hydrogen is not the solution to these problems.
First, hydrogen is not as easily available as the passage indicates. Although it’s present in common substances like water, is not directly usable in that form. For use in a fuel-cell engine, hydrogen must first be obtained in a pure liquids state. This pure liquid hydrogen is a highly artificial substance. It’s technologically very difficult to produce and store liquid hydrogen. For example, it must be kept very, very cold, at minus 253 degree Celsius. Imaging the elaborate cooling technology that’s required for that, so hydrogen’s not such a practically and easily available substance, is it?
Second, using hydrogen would not solve the pollution problems associated with cars. Why? Producing pure hydrogen creates a lot of pollution. To get pure hydrogen from water or natural gas, you have to use a purification process that requires lots of energy that obtained by burning coal or oil. And burning coal and oil creates lots of pollution. So although the cars would not pollute, the factories that generate the hydrogen for the cars would pollute.
Third, there won’t necessarily be any costs savings when you consider how expensive it is to manufacture the fuel cell engine. That’s because fuel cell engines require components made of platinum, a very rare and expensive metal. Without the platinum component in the engine, the hydrogen doesn’t undergo the chemical reaction that produces the electricity to power the automobile. All the efforts to replace platinum with a cheaper material have so far been unsuccessful.
