Hydrogen on Demand

Hydrogen on demand is the concept of creating the gas as needed from another chemical compound in order to power a vehicle. Hydrogen on demand can involve the electrolysis of water and thus injecting the resulting HHO gas into the vehicle's intake to increase gas mileage and reduce emissions.

Hydrogen on Demand

Or, hydrogen on demand can involve other chemical compounds besides water. Some of the chemicals used in hydrogen on demand technology include aluminum, magnesium and sodium borohydride. A company called Hydrogen Power Inc. created a hydrogen on demand 2005 Ford Ranger to show off its H2R system.

Hydrogen on demand can be used for both internal combustion engines and for fuel cell vehicles. The hydrogen on demand systems that use electrolysis of water work with internal combustion engines as supplemental sources to the fossil fuels to help drivers get better fuel mileage and decrease tailpipe emissions.

The hydrogen on demand systems that work with fuel cells use the hydrogen as the main source of fuel to power the vehicle. Besides the chemical compounds already mentioned this can also include the reforming of other fuels such as gasoline, diesel or methanol in order to extract the hydrogen and run it through the fuel cell in order to power the vehicle.

This method gained some popularity in the 1990's and early 2000's but in the last couple of years, automakers have largely abandoned the onboard reformation process in favor of putting pure compressed hydrogen onboard the vehicle.

Hydrogen on demand is also being used as batteries for small portable electronic devices. Methanol or sodium borohydride is typically used and converted to hydrogen as needed. For cars, hydrogen on demand units can either be built with do-it-yourself (DIY) systems or by purchasing the components to these devices with or without installation.

These are typically called hydrogen generators for cars or else they are called HHO generators or HHO gas savers or hydrogen fuel injection systems or some such other nomenclature. Since this is emerging technology the industry has not settled yet for the universal term for these devices. But, rest assured as more interest builds, there will be much standardization of terminology that comes with this.