As the world becomes more aware of the potential harm that can be caused by carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere, there has been a renewed effort to replace the complex hydrocarbons in gasoline and diesel fuel with simpler compounds such as methane (CH4 consisting of 1 carbon and 4 hydrogen atoms) and hydrogen itself.

Hydrogen can be burned in internal combustion engines, or it can be combined with oxygen in a fuel cell. Over 99% of the output is simple water vapor (H2O).

Since combusting a gallon of gasoline produces over 20 pounds of CO2, replacing that gallon of gasoline with hydrogen is environmentally very appealing. The United States Department of Energy Web Site (www.fueleconomy.com) has details showing how the octane in gasoline (C8H18) combines with oxygen to produce over 20 pounds of carbon dioxide.