Hydrogen as a Fuel in Automotive and Air Transportation

Oil and oil-related products such as gasoline and diesel oil are used to power cars and vehicles of all kinds because of their high energy density and ease of storage. Our standard of living depends in great measure on the automobile. It is further dependent on the mass transport of goods by water, rail, highway, and air; it also depends on the use of machines in agriculture and the resulting high rate of utilization of arable land. The fact that the exhaustion of the world’s supply of oil is now in sight makes it necessary to develop new fuels or modes of transportation if we are to maintain our standard of living. Even without the imminent depletion of our oil supply, however, the increasing air pollution from automobiles, particularly carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides in the atmosphere (as well as other polluting products of the combustion of gasoline), forces us to give thought to developing other fuels for transportation.