Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Week #5 February 1-7

Please use this space to share your reflections of our learnings this week. What are the concepts that we discussed? What are the important vocabulary words that you learned? Are there any topics that we have covered that you are still unsure of?

111 comments:

  1. today we took a quiz in science, i did the moodle lad over the weekend, but i didnt have my lad with me or any other things that could have helped. i dont think i did as well as i could have done, and ssame goes for my quiz today. soo i learned that it is important to use other materials as well as your lad for moodle homework quizzes. i also learned that hydrogen fuel sells are really expensive, but people pay the money anyways so that they can help the economy ans our enviornment. a small hydrogen fuel cell car costs about seventy dollars, and imagine how mmuch it would cost if you bought a full sized car that runs off of hydrogen. if you only use hydrogen to fuel your car and not gasoline mixed with hydrogen, you will blow up and the car will also because hydrogen has to be mixed with gasoline before fueling a car.

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  2. On monday in class, we learned mainly about Hydrogen Fuel cells. We learned how they were much better than a regular car becuse the by- product is water. In the pre- lab powerpoint, I learned what Electrolysis was, the definition is: The process of using an electrical current to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. We also saw some pictures of what a gas station would look like for this "alternative" mode of transportation.

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  3. when we went to the form I learnd that National Renwable Energy Laboratony is a place that they study Hydrogen Economy, fuel cells technorgy.Hydrogen renew souces, statioary backup power, transportation, and speciulty markets. Hydrogen is the most abundant element is th euniverse but not on Earth. fuel cell is an electrochemical device. some of the kind of fule cell are pem, Alkaline, phhospnoric acid, Molten corbonate, and solid oxide fuel cell.

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  4. When we watched the video about hydrogen fuel cells wednesday afternoon there were a lot of intresting topics. First was that algae can produce hydrogen. It takes the energy from the sun to do this, but it doesn't reduce the amount of CO2 in the air it uses it more effiecently though. Second is that a company is creating alloys that combine with hydrogen to ceate metalhydrides which can store energy. They say on one tank that you can travel up to one hundred and forty miles. Currently hydrogen is made using fossil fuels so it is still putting out greenhouse gases, but with how good we are getting in a few years we may begin to see hydrogen cars popping up all over.

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  5. Today in class 2 speakers from NREL came in and talked about renewable energy like hydrogen powered cars and other vehicles. They also showed us how it works and did an experiment on the front table. They showed us a presentation on renewable energy and how expensive it costs to buy a hydrogen car and how quiet it runs, it cost about $1 million to just buy the car and plus you have to buy hydrogen to put in it and the only filling stations are in California so that isn’t convenient. Although the presentation was good I wish they would have made the experiment work better.

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  6. Today in class we had two guest speakers from NREL (National Renewable Energy Lab). They spoke about the hydrogen fuel cell and how it helps the economy. It gets about 65 miles to the gallon and is very expensive. One other good thing about this cell is that when it is used it makes purified water.(disstilled water) One problem with the hydrogen fuel cell in cars is that there are not many refil stations in the country. These fuel cells can also be put into batterys of almost anything. This presentation was a great way for us to learn about how what we are doing in class relates to the present world right now.

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  7. The guest speaker in the forum talked about fuel cells. Fuel Cells are a electrochemical device. It's highly efficient for energy conversions. But it can very costly and has a lack of fuel infrastructure. The types of fuel cells are PEM, Alkaline, Phosphoric acid, Molten Corbonate, and Solid Oxide. And a car that has a tank full of hydrogen can travel up to 68 miles per kg. Thats 400 miles.

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  8. today we had two guest speakers from NREL come and speak to us about hydrogen and other things associated with it. yesterday i learned that water can be split in half to extract its elements that it's composed of(hydrogen and oxygen). this process is very expensice and is dangerous because hydrogen by itself is very flamable. people use hydrpgen as a renewable fuel source for their cars, but it is very expensive(about one million dollars per car), and ontop of that, the owners of the cars have to pay for hydrogen to keep filling up the tank. even though ydrogen cars are very expensive and dangerous because of its flammability, they are great for the ecenomy and for people who have the kind of money to buy them. they get about sixty-five miles per gallon on a single tank of gas, about enough to travel around three hundred-fifty miles without stopping. this car is great for our economy and for science lovers, but the re-fueling stations for these expensive renweable energy source using cars are very scarce and the fuel is expensive.

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  9. hey boyce, thats the second time i have blogged this week, do i hear some extra credit??? hahahaha jk (just kidding) case you didnt know

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  10. When we watched the video about hydrogen fuel cells today there were a lot of cool things in the video. one was that a company is creating alloys that combine with hydrogen to ceate metalhydrides which can store energy. They are using this to power cars. They say that with one tank of this you can travel up to one hundred and forty miles. Hydrogen puts out alot of greenhouse gasses because they are made using fossil fuels. Another cool thing that was in the movie today was that alge can produce hydrogen from the sun. I think that hydrogen fueled cars will be the types of cars in the future.

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  11. NREL is a very interesting labratory. They offer many different learning programs for students and teachers. NREL is the only labratory in the US dedicated to renewable energy and energy efficiency. NREL had over 1800 staff members. Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe. It can be made from nonrenewable resources such as wind, biomass, and solar energy. It can also be made from renewable rseources such as coal and natural gas. A fuel cell is a electrochemical devie that efficiently converts energy to a fuel. The fuel cell was founded in 1839. Today there are around 140 fuel cell cars on the road. Also there are buses which will be used in the 2010 Vancouver olympic games. Today I really learned a lot about fuel cells and how they work.

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  12. Today in class we had a scientist from NREl come speak to us about hydrogen powered fuel cells. The speaker worked especially on smaller devices that used the fuel cell. We also use a fuel cell on buses, cars, fork lifts, and other things. Hydrogen fuel cells are very efficient. Also it doesn't emit any bad material, just pure water. On the road a hydrogen fuel car gets about sixty eight miles per gallon. The only problem is there is a lack of stations to fill these cars up with hydrogen. A disadvantage of a hydrogen fuel cell is that it is very expensive. It is mainly so expensive because of the platinum it contains.

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  13. Wednesday during class, a guest speaker came to talk to us about fuel cells. We learned about different types of fuel cells and what they are useful for. Mainly we learned about hydrogen powered fuel cells and how they impact the environment in a more positive way than coal and gasoline would. If someone used a hydrogen powered car the only emitions would be water. Hydrogen can power many things such as buses, cars, forklifts and even whole buildings. Hydrogen would also be very efficient. In a car it could get up to 68 mpg. The guest speaker came from NREL, so we also learned some background information about NREL and what it does.

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  14. we had two ladies from NREL come to speak to us. they talked about hydrogen fuel cells and how they can be used. i learned they can be used in more than just cars, such as cell phones and lap tops. i also learned the they have acctualy come out with them but they are just sooo expensive that most people dont buy them. i learned that they have NO emitions. i learned alot from these ladies.

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  16. Today two speakers form NREL came to talk to us. We learned that NREL is the only national laboratory in the U.S. We also learned that hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe and it is very light. a hydrogen fuel cell converts chemical energy into electricity without burning. advantages of hydrogen is that it has a high efficiency, emission free, quiet and reliable. But disadvantages are that it is expensive, which seizes storage, production and distribution. All in all the presentation was very informing and interesting.

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  17. Yesterday during class, speakers from NREL came. They told us that NRL is the only national laboratory dedicated to renewable energy and efficiency, and employs over 1800 workers. They talked about hydrogen and how it is the most abundant element in the universe and is incredibly light. The main way hydrogen is formed is by natural gas and it creates chemical energy into electricity without it burning. The said that hydrogen is way better for the environment then burning fossil fuels. But one of the negative things about it is it is very expensive. Hydrogen can be used to power a lot of things including cell phones, cars, lap tops, etc. The guest speakers made their presentation interesting.

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  18. Lexi Mercier Per1
    Yesterday a guest speaker from NREL came and talked to us about hydrogen fuel cells. I learned many things about NREL and hydrogen. First NREL stands for National Renewable Energy Labratory, and it is the only one in the whole United States. At NREL one thing they do is create hydrogen fuel cells to use as an alternative to gas. Hydrogen fuel cells take chemical engery and convert it to electrical energy. There are many pros and cons associated with these fuel cells. Some pros are they are high in efficiency, quiet, reliable, and easy to refill. Some cons are the cost and the lack of production, storage, and distribution.

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  19. During science this week, we had a couple scientists from NREL come and speak to us. We learned a little bit about NREL where they work, which is the only lab dedicated to renewable energy. We mainly learned about hydrogen and hydrogen cells. Hydrogen comes from a renewable source and it is the most abundant compound and has the highest energy content per pound of any fuel. An advantage of using fuel cells would be that their efficiency rates are about 40% to 50%. A disadvantage would be their price and the lack of fuel infrastructure. Fuel cells were also first discovered around 1839. The reason that the hydrogen is so expensive is because of the platinum used. So far, many objects such as cars, forklifts, mopeds, trains, bikes, and laptops can be powered by fuel cells.

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  20. On Wednesday this week, we had a guest speaker from the National Renewable Energy Lab. She told us the positive and negative affects of using hydrogen as an energy source. I learned that hydrogen fuel cells are very efficient and produce no emissions that harm the environment. Instead of waiting 8 hours for a battery to charge, hydrogen fuel cells only take a few minutes to "refuel". Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe, which makes it a renewable resource. Unfortunately, hydrogen fuel cells have flaws. Storing hydrogen is a major problem because it is a very flammable element. Also, the materials used to make fuel cells (like platinum) are very expensive, so not many people can afford to use them. NREL is working on finding away to lower the cost; they presume to have hydrogen fuel cells available for everyone's use in 2015.

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  21. In science on Wednesday, we had the opportunity to learn from a scientist that works at the National Renewable Energy Lab. NREL is the only lab dedicated to renewable energy and efficient energy. She informed us that the United States depends on oil more and more each year. Renewable energy that is available for our use is wind energy, biomass, solar, geothermal, hydro, and the ocean. Non- renewable energy is nuclear energy, coal, and natural gas. We were reminded that hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe, but not necessarily on earth. Water is the most abundant element on earth and water has two hydrogen atoms. The main focus of the presentation was to learn about the fuel cell. A fuel cell is an electromagnetic device that efficiently converts chemical energy in a fuel cell. A disadvantage of using the fuel cell is the cost, and the lack of fuel infustructure. The advantage is that the fuel cell uses less energy transformations for energy conversions, so it is more efficient. There is also no need to recharge when using a fuel cell, you just refuel. The different types of fuel cells are PEM, Alkaline, Phosphoric Acid, Molten Carbonate, and Solid Oxide.

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  22. On Wednesday, we got to listen to Dr. Dinh. We learned from her about fuel cell technology and her research. She told us how we are running out of power, and that we needed to look toward our other options, and one of those is, fuel cell technology. Hydrogen is the most abundant element on Earth,it is also lighter than helium and highest content per pound of any other fuel. The efficiency of a hydrogen fuel cell would be about 40-50%, which is much higher than gasoline. It also has an indefinite operating time. Some of the disadvantages are the cost to make the cells, as well as the fuel infrastructure, such as the storage and production. These cells can also be used in cars and other automobiles. You may even get over 400 miles on one tank of hydrogen. At this point there are only 17 hydrogen filling stations in the United States. At the Olympics this winter, some of the busses are powered by hydrogen fuel cells. Cars powered by the cells, are in turn better than electric cars. Which have a limit to how long they run until you have to plug them pack in to power. Electricity, which in this case is created by power plants, so instead of the emissions coming out of a tail pipe, they just end up coming out of a smoke stack somewhere else. The only things the hydrogen fuel cells produce is water vapor and electricity.

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  24. Well this week we had a guest speaker and she was from the Nation Renewable Energy Labratory, and i think she said that it was the only National labratory that was dedicated to renewable energy which is pretty awesome... After taking notes on what she said I learned from what she talked about that Hydrogen can be recieved from renewable and nonrenewable things and may be stored for powering later, I also learned that hydrogen is lighter then helium which i know must be really really light because helium is really light... I also learned that a fuel cell is an electrochemical device that efficiency turns chemical, its efficiency might i also say that it has a high effiency (40-50%) and is indefinate operating time and it never needs to be recharged. And is also alot better then gas so it will be quieter and will not put out harmful gases(greenhouse gases) like gasoline does. The only thing that they need to work on is that its really expensve, but it has 400MLK range, 68mile per kg. but they're only 17 filling stations, so it would be really hard to refill. But Mr. Boyce taught us that we will endup all having to use fuel cell cars probably by the time when we get out of college.

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  25. This week we had some scientist from NREL came to speak to us. we had learned that hydrogen is one of the lightest and the most abundant element on the universe. also NREL is the only labratory in the united states. advantages of a hydrogen fuel cell is that its reliable and high effiency. disadvantages are that its expensive. she spoke about the positive and negative affects of using hydrogen as an energy source. well the whole presentation was very informing and good to learn things we never knew about.

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  26. This week in science we watched a video about hydrogen-fueled cars. It showed a man and his wife who ran a company dedicated to making forms of clean energy, like solar panels, and researching how to store hydrogen. One interesting way they discovered to store hydrogen was using hydrogen in the solid state. To use solid hydrogen, you need a mixture of alloys, which absorbs the hydrogen like a sponge, then stores it. Another way these cars can work is on compressed hydrogen gas. The problem with using compressed hydrogen is that the tanks that hold the hydrogen heat up very quickly. When this happens, water is usually used to cool them down. The other problem with hydrogen powered cars is that they will not be a form of clean energy inless clean, renewable resources are used to "create" the hydrogen. If energy from wind and solar power is used to split water into hydrogen and oxygen, these cars which emit only water as exhaust, can be a clean, renewable way for us to drive.

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  27. This week I learned about hydrogen fuel cells both the pros and cons using them. Some of the cons of a hydrogen fuel cell are it is incredibly expensive to opreate the cells in a large scale situation. It is also very hard to get hydrogen into a pure form to use in a cell. The electricity needed to get the hydrogen is still detramental because people are still using coal burning power plants. Now for the pros of a hydrogen fuel cell. It is one of the best ways to use a car for the enviornment becuase the by product is water instead of a greenhouse gas. It is a renewable energy source so it will last us longer than normal ways obtaining energy. The cell its self is very expensive to make because it requires the most expensive metal on the planet, Platnium. Techniques are still being refined to use the hydrogen fuel cell but it is probubly going to be the engin of the future.

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  28. In the forum we learned about Hydrogen fuel cells. I learned that with fuel cells on cars you cluld drive from new York to Miami with just one tank of hydrogen where with a normal car you need about 2 or 3 tanks. Hydrogen is more fuel efficient but very expensive and flamable and not exactly safe. ALso i learned that those cars can release greenhose gases even though its more efficient.

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  29. On Wednesday in class we watched a video about hydrogen fueled cars. It was about how a man and his wife run a company on making clean forms of energy. They said that the best way to store hydrogen is in a solid state. Also, when a car runs on hydrogen it doesn't release any carbon dioxide, just water vapour which is good for the enviornment. I learned that algae can produce hydrogen as well, it takes energy from the sun to do this.

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  30. On Wednesday this week in science we had a guess speaker. Our guest speaker came and talked about NREL. NREL is a laboratory that makes hydrogen a part of our lives. But the only problem is that a car that is made for hydrogen gas cost about one million dollars!!! So making hydrogen part of our life is a problem. I learned also that hydrogen was the most abundant element in the universe, but not on earth. That is one of the reasons hydrogen is so expensive. A disadvantage of hydrogen is that it is hard to storage and production is hard to do and it cost a lot of money.

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  31. Wednesday we had two quest speekers from NREL in Golden Colorado. The were talking to us about the Hydrogen fuel cell. They said that the state of California acctually has some Hydrogen fuel stations and hydrogen fuel cars, The quest speeker acctually drove a Hydrogen fuel car 480 miles down the Califorina beachline with out haveing to stop to refuel once. The disadvantages of the hydrogen fuel cell is cost 1 car would be around a million dollars

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  32. On Wednesday we had two guest speakers come and talk to us about Hydrogen Fuel Cells. Hydrogen was first discovered in 1839 by Sir William Grove. Hydrogen is also the most abundant resource in the Universe. It is also very light even lighter then helium. There are many advantages to hydrogen but there are also some disadvantages to hydrogen. Some of the advantages are high efficiencies, indefinite operation time, and its extremely reliable. Some of the disadvantages to hydrogen are cost, lack of fuel infrastructure, production, storage, and distribution. Mostly Hydrogen is very useful and we hope that it can help our atmosphere in the future.

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  33. This week we learned about hydrogen fuel cells and cars that use it to run. We learned that it is better then gasoline because when it burns it burns quickly and up, while gasoline leaks and burns the whole car. Also the only by product of hydrogen fuel cells is water, so it is better for the environment. A negative of it however is that we get it from natural gas. We also learned the function of the PEM, or the Proton Exchange Membrane. The PEM allows protons (from a water molecule) to pass through the membrane and forces the electrons to follow a path around the membrane, which causes electricity. There are many cars that are already using hydrogen fuel cells, eventually this could be the what we are driving in the future.

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  34. NREL is the only federal laboratory that develops clean and more efficient technologies. The new form of energy we are studying is the hydrogen fuel cell. These fuel cells do not release pollution, are efficient, and generate power quietly. Why aren’t these fuel cells more abundant? Hydrogen fuel cells are extremely costly which is why they are somewhat rare. Although these fuel cells are costly now, in the future will the price be affordable? Yes! In the near future cars will run on hydrogen rather than gasoline which is a big step in bringing greenhouse gas emissions down. Hydrogen fuel cells, once affordable, will hopefully help the environment in the future.

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  35. This week we had a guest speaker from the National Renewable Energy Labratory (NREL) speak to us about renewable energy and hydrogen fuel cells. I learned that hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe but not on Earth. It is taken out of water and used as an energy source. Hydrogen fuel cell cars can get up to 65 MPG but unfortuantly the cars are $1 million and fill up stations for public use are only in California. The reason the cars are so expensive is because the PEM cells inside of them contain platinum and its is extremely rare. I thought the guest speaker was very useful and I learned lots from it.

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  36. On wednesday we had a guest speaker from NREL and her assistant come and talk to us. They talked about hydrogen fuel cell. they talked about how they work. They also talked about how it can help our fuel problem and could be the energy of the future. The only problem is that the fuel cells are very expensive this is because it has platinum in it and platinum is very expansive. They are working on lowering the cost of fuel cell cars and getting more rufueling stations around the country. I thought this presentation was very interesting and i learned alot from this speaker.

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  37. this week we had a lab person come in to talk to us about alternative sources of fuel. We learned hydrogen is a very good source because the product is water and it is a renewable source. The only bad thing is what we use to separate the hydrogen and oxygen molecules. If we use coal burning power plants it will not be the best thing because we are still producing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, but if we use wind power and solar power, along with light energy then we would be perfectly fine. I think that eventually we will all have to switch to hydrogen power.

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  38. this week in science we learned about hydrogen fuel cells. the hydrogen fuel cell is very efficient in some areas but is not efficient in others. it is efficient because when the hydrogen burns it gives off only water which is good for the environment. And becasue hydrogen is lighter than air when it burns it burns up, away from people during a spill. the hydrogen fuel cell may be good in some areas but it is not cost efficient, fuel sources are hard to find, and the motor gets extremely hot. The hydrogen fuel cell is not yet ready for the general public due to its minor problems, but when its ready the inovations of the fuel cell will be much more efficient for the enviornment.

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  39. On wendsday, speakers from National Renewable Energy Labratory (NREL) came. They told us that NREL is the only national laboratory dedicated to renewable energy and efficiency, and friendly to employers. They talked about hydrogen and how it is the most abundant element in the universe and is incredibly light/ flamable. The main way hydrogen is formed is by natural gas and it creates chemical energy into electricity without it burning. They said that hydrogen is way better for the environment, and may be the alturnitave fuel due to the shortage of fossil fuels. The negative things about hydrogen is that it is very expensive! Hydrogen can be used to power a lot of things including cell phones, to even factories! The guest speakers also showed us some examples. I learned alot from them!

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  40. Speakers from the National Renewable Energy Lab came to speak to us on Wednesday. They talked about to us about Hydrogen Fuel Technology. They told us Hydrogen has high efficiency, zero emissions, that it is the most abundant element in the universe, it is very light, it operates quietly, and that it has the highest energy compuond per pound. It also is very expensive, and there is a lack of fuel production, storage, and distribution. The cost of a fuel cell car is about 1 million a car. One fuel cell cost about $58 dollars.

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  41. On Wednesday we watched a video about hydrogen fueled cars. I learned that these cars cant hold as much hydrogen as they could gas. This couple decided that it would be easier to store if it was in the form of a solid. In the video they showed us the places that the hydrogen is stored. It was very cool but these cars r also very expensive.

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  42. In lab this week we learnded about the fuel cell. We tested a minature size of the hydrogen fuel cell car. It runs by water and hydrogen. It has to charge up before running. Hydrogen is a gas that is renewable and does not pollute at all. But the problem is that hydrogen costs a lot of money. So today not the average person could by the car.

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  43. On Wednesday we had a guest speaker from NREL. She spoke to us about the hydrogen fuel cell. Hydrogen is a very abundant resource and can be found in both renewable and nonrenewable sources. Some advantages to the fuel cell are its very efficient, its emission free, quiet, and reliable. However, it is extremely expensive—a hydrogen fuel cell car is about $1,000,000—and there are very few refueling stations in the U.S.

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  44. This week was about alternative fuels, particuarily hydrogen. In the beginning of the week during lab, we learned about how water is a byproduct of fuel cells, and how many energy transfers take place. Also, we watched a video starring a couple who were demonstrating how storing hydrogen as a solid could potentially allow the car to go much further. However, platinum is used in the making of fuel cells and as such it is far to exspensive for the average driver.

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  45. On Wednesday, an employee of NRAL came in and talked to us about her devotion to renewable energy and fuel cells. A fuel cell is an electrochemical device that efficiently converts chemical burning into fuel. Hydrogen is used with them because it is a diverse domestic resource, it has high efficiency and reliability, and near-zero emissions. Some other advantages are that it has an indefinite operating time as long as fuel is provided, it is scalable from mW to MW, it is a quiet operation, and is reliable. Some disadvantages are that it is costly and that it has a lack of fuel infastructure. Finally, types of fuel cells are PEM, Alkaline, Phosparic Acid, Molten Carbonate, and Solid Oxide.

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  46. On wednesday, two scientists from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) came to our school to talk to us about hydrogen fuel cells. They told us how they work through a process of electrolysis where elements are separated into their base components. They told us the pros and cons of using HFC's. One cool fact I learned about HFC's is that they can make cars run for about 70 mpg.

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  47. A scientist from NREL came to speak about hydrogen fuel cells on Monday. She discussed the positives and negatives of a hydrogen fuel cell. The positives were that hydrogen fuel cells do not emit harmful greenhouse gases and they only emit water. She also said that hydrogen is the most abundant element in our universe and it is a renewable resource. The negatives to using hydrogen fuel cells are that hydrogen is very expensive and there are very few hydrogen cell refueling stations in the world. Another negative she said is that when generating hydrogen, greenhouse gases are emitted.

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  48. THis week in class we learned about hydrogen fuel cells. Hydrogen fuel cells are very effiecent and over all much easier to use than gasoline in cars. Instead of putting out pollutants, the by product of hydrogen fuel cells is water vapor. The only real down side to this is that it's very expensive. And we woudld have to set up hydrogen fueling stations up across the country, and maybe even world. And that would cost a lot of money.

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  49. This week someone from NREL came to talk to use about hydrogen fuel cells. I learned how they work and why they will be the future of most or all of our energy. I learned that although the fuel cells work well they are expensive because they need platinum which is really expensive so hydrogen cars cost millions of dollars.

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  50. In class we had a guest speaker form NREL that spoke to us about the hydrogen fuel cell and how efficient it is. She told us that it is a great alternative fuel and that if we can figure out how to make it cheaper that they can someday sell it commercially. They use one of the most expensive metals in the world to create this, platinum, and they use it in high amounts. This kind of fuel is efficient because we can drive two times as far on take of hydrogen as we can with the fuel we use now. It is also good because instead of releasing some very bad chemicals it only releases water vapor

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  51. On Wednesday a lady from NREL came and talked to the science classes. I thought it was very interesting how her job was to make hydrogen our new renewable fuel. I learned that this is exspensive but a much better fuel for our environment. I also learned that it would cost one million dollars to own a hydrogen fuel car.

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  52. During the week when a Dr. Huyen Dinh came from NREL. NREL is the only national laboratory that is dedicated to renewable energy. I learned that hydrogen has a high efficiency and is the most abundant element in the universe but not on the Earth. I also learned that the fuel cell which is a great renewable source converts chemical enery into electrical energy. Some of the disadvantages of a fuel cell is that it costs to much, production, storage, and distribution. NREL is trying to figure out a way to lower the cost because the fuel cell has many advantages. For example, it is clean, efficient, quiet, and has a wide scale of capacity. The most common fuel cell is the PEM. In order to have more voltage, fuel cells can be stacked together.

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  53. On Wensday a lady from the National Renewable Energy Lab came in and talked about hydrogen fuel. She works in a department that is trying to make hydrogen fuel cells cheaper so that everyone can use the hydrogen fuel. The nice thing is that if the electricity comes from a clean source the only product is water.

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  54. PEM fuel cells are Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells, they take in hydrogen of fuel and releases no harmful emissions. The only biproduct besides energy is water. Hydrogen fuel cell cars get up to 68 mpg and aren't harmful to the environment in any way shape or form. They are about a million dollars today, but companies say that in 5 years, they will be available to the public for an affordable price.

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  55. This week we watched a video about Hydrogen Fuel Cells and how they are created and can be used to power vehicles. I learned that hydrogen fuel cells are a good alternative source of energy because their only byproduct is water and it is an abundant resource. Some of the down sides to hydrogen energy is the high cost of the platinum used in the PEM, and in order to split H2O to get hydrogen gas, you must use electricity from other sources such as Coal fired Power plants which would be counterproductive.

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  56. This week in class and lab we learned about how hydrogen fuel cells are used in cars and other uses. Also we learned how much healthier it is to use hydrogen fuel cells in our enviroment.

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  57. In class this week, we watched a video on the advantages and disadvantages of using alternative sources of energy, mainly hydrogen. while being the most abundent resource on earth, hydrogen must be separated, run through an expensive platimum membrane, and then used as electricity. another disadvantage is the amount of heat generated by said processes. in the end, we need to refine and comercialize the uses of hydrogen.

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  58. in class this week we leared about different types of energys but we mostly work with hydrogen cells and what they can do and then we had two speakers expalin more about hydrogen and how they are trying to use it for energy and what we can do with it

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  59. This week in class two people from NREL came to speak. They talked about hydrogen fuel cells. They said there are not many cars that use the hydrogen fuel cells. They are good because they don't pollute the air and they get really good gas milage. The bad things are they are flammable, very expensive, and there are not many refill stations.

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  60. On Wednesday in class, we watched the video on hydrogen fuel cells. I learned that We can grow algae and use the energy in them to but into other sources that need energy, and then is can be recycled. It's like a healthy form of pollution, because it doesn't do anything to the air or water around it. You can even eat the waste algae! I also learned that it is really expensive to use hydrogen fuel cells in cars, so that's why we haven't done it yet. It sounds perfectly logical to switch to something so clean, so reusable, and so powerful, until you hear the price. They say that a car running on hydrogen can go for somewhere around a million dollars! So I hope that someday it will be made more affordable, because as soon as it is, I'm buying one.

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  61. When the guest speaker from NREL came to speak to us I learned a lot about hydogen and how far the technology has already statred to develop. There are already some cars that run on hydrogen fuel cells, which I thought was extremely neat. I didn't think anything like this had started to be created. I also didn't relieze how expensive it was to creat each fuel cell.

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  62. This week in science we took a quiz, listened to an NREL speaker talk about hydrogen fuel cells and how they work. In lab we looked at how hydrogen fuel cell cars work and how water can be spilt into its two main parts, (hydrogen and oxygen) to help the hydrogen fuel cell work. We also watched a video on the positives and negatives of hydrogen fuel powered cars.

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  63. This week, two guest speakers from NREL came in and talked to us about hydrogen fuel cells. They told us the ups and downs of what they can do. The positives of hydrogen fuels cells, are that they are renuable and more energy efficient. They also do cool things so that you can replace batteries. The negative sides of them are that they cost soooo much money and people are not sure if hydrogen is a very safe way to go, since it is very flammable.

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  64. This week we watched a video on hydrogen fuel cells, and this is what I learned. Hydrogen produces 0% pollution. The road block is the distibution and storage of hydrogen. Iceland is the country that wants to be all hydrogen run. The hope is to make hydrogen from renewable sources of energy, like the sun. Algea gets rid of harmful materials. And, algea makes a more efficent way of using carbon.

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  65. on wednesday some guest speakers from NREL told us about what a hydrogen fuel cell is, how they work and the advantages/disadvantages are of using them. a hydrogen fuel cell is something that converts hydrogen gas into electricity. they work by seperating the atoms to flow electrons. the advantages to using them are that they dont give and pollution but the disadvantage is that they cost alot of money.

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  66. When the guest speakers came and talked to us. We learned about the different types of fuels and their various of uses. One of the speakers from the NREL, the only laboratory dedicated to renewable energy and efficeny explained the efficeny of hydrogen over gasoline. When hydrogen is used as a fuel for transportation it does not impact the environment in a negative way, like coal and gasoline would, the emitions from hydrogen is only water. As well hydrogen comes from a renewable source and it is the most abundant compound found in the universe, another postive from using hydrogen. One of the negatives found in using hydrogen is that is costly. The materials that are used in hydrogen fuel cells consist of platinum.

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  67. Last week we mainly learned how much better hydrogen is then regular gas. because insted of going and polluting the air, it turns into water and just evaporates. but hydrogen has alot of down sides to it. first, the cost it insane, because there is so little of hydrogen. but by 2015 people want to see hydrogen cars on the road. but right now a hydrogen car would cost about one million dollars. so we have to wait a little until we can all aford, or get enough for hydrogen cars.

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  68. We watched the video about hydrogen fuel cells in class on wednesday. We found out that algae can produce hydrogen with a litle help from the sun. We also learned about a man and his wife who run a company making clean forms of energy. They store hydrogen in a solid state and use it in cars. Hydrogen is a good source of cleaner energy. This couple got about one hundred and forty miles on one tank of gas with their hydrogen tank. Who knows we may be starting to drive hydrogen powered cars sooner than we know it.

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  69. Last week we previed a live presentation about Hydrogen Fuel Cell Technology. We learned that NREL is the only national lab that is completly dedicated to renewable and efficient energy. The U.S. depends mainly on oil and these numbers are increasing each year. NREL is working on Hydrogen because A. it's easy to obtain, B. Zero/Near zero emmissions. Hydrogen is also the most abundant element in the universe. It's lighter than Helium. A fuel cell converts chemical energy in a fuel directly with out burning anything. It has advantages like being very high in its efficiency, indefinite operating time, emission-free (direct hydrogen fuel cell), it's quiet and reliable. It, however, also has disadvantages like being really expensive, production is complicated, as well as its storage and distribution.

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  70. Wednesday, we learned about hydrogen fuel cells. Hydrogen is a great source for a replacement of gasoline because it's only by-product is water. However the problem is getting hydrogen into an available state. It is very expensive, and it is hard to get into a state that is usable for cars. Also, it is renewable and very light so we will have virttually forever until we run out of hydrogen. Obviously there are many advantages and disadvantages of hydrogen as a fuel.

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  71. On wednesday we watched this movie about hydrogen fuel cells and how they can be used as fuel in cars. Hydrogen produces 0% pollution and the only by-product is water. The problem is making it energy efficient and separating the H2 from the O. They do have some hydrogen cars today but they cost millions of dollars. Today, people are trying to make efficient ways to separate hydrogen so that hydrogen cars wont be as expensive and everyone can afford one.

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  72. Its crazy how easy it is to use hydrogen as a safe and responsible fuel in cars. I thought it was cool how you can travel 140+ miles on one tank of hydrogen fuel and that the only byproduct in water.

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  73. On Wednesday a speaker from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) came to speak to us. The woman came to talk about hydrogen and why it is so Important. She talked about renewable sources from wind, biomass, solar, geothermal and hydro powers. And non renewable sources like coal, natural gas and nuclear power. Hydrogen is the most abundant source in the universe, it is lighter than helium, it has the highest energy content per pound of any fuel and it is one-third the energy volume of natural gas. She also talked about fuel cells. Some of the advantages are: it’s high efficiency, quiet operation, emission free and reliability. Some of it’s disadvantages include its cost, lack of fuel infrastructure, and it’s storage. There are many different types of fuel cells, such as, P.E.M, alkaline, phosphoric acid, molten carbonate and solid oxide. In 1839 the fuel cell was discovered by Sir William Grove. The NREL, believes that this is the solution to pollution.

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  74. In science on wednesday a guest speaker came to AHS from NREL, the National Renewable Energy Labratory, and talked to us about hydrogen fuel cells. Although they are expensive, hydrogen fuel cells could be the key to the future. A hydrogen powered car gets 65 miles per gallon on hydrogen. The main problem of using hydrogen as a transpoertation fuel at first, was how to store the hydrogen effectively. Then, some new effecient method of storing hydrogen came out and currently, there are barely any hydrogen powered vehicles running. A hydrogen power car costs about 1 million dollars, not to mention the cost of the actual hydrogen you put into the tank and the scarcity of hydrogen stations in the U.S. Car companies claim that they will have an affordable hydrogen powered car within the next five years... This is going to be interesting...

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  75. This week we studied the energy transformations associated with hydrogen fuel cells and hydrogen fuel cell cars. We also studied PEMs and how they work with the lady that came to out school to teach us about her work at NREL. It was a facinating presentation and I learned alot about what it takes to be a environmental scientist and what kind of work they do.

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  76. This week, we learned a lot about hydrogen and hydrogen fuel cells. On Wednesday, we got to listen to the guest speakers, Dr. Huyen Dinh and her assistant from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). The presentation gave us a further explanation of hydrogen fuel cells. We learned that hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe and is part of the most abundant chemical compound on Earth, H2O (water). Because hydrogen is a renewable resource it is a good source of energy. The hydrogen fuel cell converts the chemical energy in fuels into electricity. We also learned that it is efficient, quiet, and reliable, but the problem is that it is very expensive. It's a really good replacement for gasoline that pollutes, because hydrogen just combines with the oxygen in the air and makes water. The presentation also gave us some background knowledge about NREL.

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  77. This week i learned a lot about hydrogen fuel cells and what they do. Hydrogen fuel cells turns chemical energy into electrical energy. This is more efficient, cleaner, and renewable as opposed to gasoline. The only problem is it es very expensive. There are a few hydrogen cars on the road today but they cost around a million dollars. Hydrogen fuel cells only byproduct is h2o, making it much cleaner than gasoline which polutes the air. My only question is will there be more hydrogen powered cars that are affordable within the next couple years?

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  78. This week during class we learned about fuel cells and hydrogen as an alternative fuel. We had a guest speaker come in from nrel and talk about fuel cells and the goals for nrel of making fuel cells available in cars. WE also talked about fossil fuels and how they can be bad to use for long periods of time.

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  79. This week we focused on the hydrogen fuel cell. We learned all about the pros and cons, how it only emmited water and water vapor, and how it didnt emmit and harmful gasses and was a renweable resource. We were also visited from scientist from NREL who were working on the cells, and they told us about how they work and what they are going to be used for in teh future

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  80. This week, we learned about hydrgen and hydrogen fuel cells. Some speakers from NREL came to talk to us on Wednesday. They talked to us about job opportunities and learning opportunities in the field of alternate energy sources such as hydrogen fuel cells. Hydrogen fuel cells are cells with hydrogen on one side and oxygen on the other. So the hydrogen comes in on one side. The protons are attracted to the oxygen on the other side so they go directly through the sheet. The electrons, however, are forced to go through a circuit and through the electrical object such as a light. The advantages are that it's clean and we have a ton of hydrogen. The disadvantages are that it's expensive and it might not even be that clean. It's not that clean because to separate the hydrogen from the oxygen or other element, it takes energy. That energy normally comes from coal. Therefore, at least at the time being, it makes no sense to use hydrogen fuel cells.

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  81. This week in science we learned about hydrogen and hydrogen fuel cells. We watched a video about how a couple started up a company with hydrogen fuel cells. Also we talked about how bad fossile fuels are for the enviroment.

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  82. This week of hydrogen fuel cells was interesting. The special video that we watched was also interesting. I had no idea that there was another design of solar panels that works in the rain and with holes drilled through it. I think that even if those solar panels were used more it could become more cost effective. The same person also is in the process of designing a alloy that will hold hydrogen more effectively, being able to hold more hydrogen and able to travel further. I will be interested to see what is invented in the coming years.

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  83. The presintation from nrel was verry interesting to say the least. I had no idea you could create hydrogen using solar pannels.

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  84. This week we learned about hydrrogen fuel cells. We learned about how the worked and what they can be used for. We also had a guest speaker from NREL and she told us about the work she is doing to make the fuel cell ready for everday use.

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  85. In class on Wednsday we watched a video on hydrogen fuel cells and how they are being used in cars and buses today. We learned how they plan to use hydrogen fuel cells in the future and that car companies plan to sell hydrogen fuel cell cars by 2015.

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  86. We had a speaker from NREL come and talk to us about Hydrogen Fuel Cells. Heere are the notes and key points I got from her presentation.


    Why Hydrogen
    High efficiency
    Quite operation
    Reliable
    Scalable
    Why Not Hydrogen
    Cost
    Lack of fuel infrastructure
    Discovered in 1839

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  87. On wendsday in class, we had two guess speakers in class from the NREL. They talked about the hydrogen fuel cell cars and their properties. We learned that they are very efficient and release no toxins from their exaust.

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  88. This week we learned about what hydrogen fuel cells are and how they work and what they are made up of. In the video we watched on Wednesday, one of the things it talked about was how allgae can produce hydrogen. This was truly fascinating. We also learned that a hydrogen fuel cell is eco-friendly because it does not produce any pollution whatsoever, its byproduce is purely water vapor.

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  89. This week a Guest speaker came to take about how hydrogen can be useed to make out technology better and all. She was very interseting and a learnes alot from what she said. Hydrogen can cut back on green house gasses that indanger the earth, and it only gives off water to the atmosphere and it wont harm the ozone layer. The bad thing is that its very exspensive to make. But when im driving in the next couple of years it will be common to have cars running off of hydrogen.

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  90. This week some one from ENRL came to talk about fuel cells and hydrogen cells. at first they talked about themselves a little to much. After that they started to talk about special tanks for there gass that allowes you to get 112 miles per something. It was horibly boaring!!!

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  91. This week a person from NREL came and we learned about hydrogen fuel cells. Hydrogen fuel cells are really good because they dont hurt the environment like greenhouse gases and they are able to be used in the same places. But it is very expensive and cannot be made cheap yet. Hydrogen fuel cells take hydrogen and oxygen and have a biproduct of water.

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  92. I learned a lot about hydrogen fuel cells from the video we watched. I learned the a hydrogen fuel cell has only one by-product, which is water so there is no pollution caused. There are around 150 hydrogen fuel cell cars on the road in america.

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  93. We learn about hydrogen fuel cells. There are only a few things about using it. Its very expensive and its hard to give hydrogen and theirs no pollution and the old byproduct is water or water vapor.

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  94. Hydrogen's made when the sun's flare fuses. Hydrogen is more efficient then gas and in about 5 years or so hydrogen fuel cell cars are going to start being sold. The car's wouldn't necessarily be cheap they would be around a million dollars but the hydrogen instead of gas you would get it for a lot cheaper.On one tank of gas you would get about 140 miles and it doesn't smell like gas does. Also if the car caught fire then the fire would go up and away instead of catching the car on fire. The only concerns are of safety and if it would be more safe then gas. Also it works better as pure hydrogen rather than hydrogen mixed with the by-product of water. They also talked about solar panels in the video and how the new solar panels work in dimmer light but the flaw of them is that they don't work very good in bright sunlight. The next big thing would be for them to create a solar panel that would work in complete darkness and work in bright sunlight.

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  95. This week some scientist from NREL came to talk to us about how they’re trying to change our fuel for things like cars, houses, buildings, ex. They are taking water molecules and taking the hydrogen molecules off of them to make hydrogen. Then they run they hydrogen through a fuel cell a fuel cell works by taking the hydrogen and running it by a magnet then running oxygen on the other side of the magnet and they move forward trying to get to each other witch makes energy to run things like cars and houses. This is good because the exhaust is pure clean water, but the down side is it takes more energy to create it then it does for anything.

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  96. This week we had a scientist come in. She was from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory or NREL. NREL has a whole lot to do with renewable energy. She talked about energy fuel cells and how it was healthier for the environment instead of gasoline. In the lab we used a small size model of a car that ran on a hydrogen fuel cell. The hydrogen fuel cell maybe better for the environment but it costs a lot of money to buy them.

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  97. Thia week we had a scientist come to talk to us from NREL(National Renewable Energy Laboratory). She basically told us about energy fuel cell, hydrogen fuel cell and how cars like hydrogen fuel car can be good for the environment.She also told us that hydrogen cars maybe renewable source but it also costs a ton of money.

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  98. On Wednesday we had a guest speaker from NREL. She spoke to us about the hydrogen fuel cell. Hydrogen is a very abundant resource and can be found in both renewable and nonrenewable sources. Some advantages to the fuel cell are its very efficient, its emission free, quiet, and reliable. However, it is extremely expensive—a hydrogen fuel cell car is about $1,000,000—and there are very few refueling stations in the U.S.

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  99. this week i learned about hydrogen fuel cells and how they can be used to creat electricity i also learned in the olympics they are using hydrogen fuel cell buses for transportation. i also learned hydrogen is a very abundant source and can be almost found anywhere.

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  100. Speakers from NRel came in and spoke to us about hydrogen fuel cells. We learned about this renewable and clean recourse. In a hydrogem fuel cell the only polution that comes out is water. We learned about all kinds of good things. But also there are things that are stoping us from using them. They are very expensive and very few hydrogen fuel cell refuling places.

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  101. this week two speakers from NREL came to teach us about hydrogen furl cells. i learned both positives and negatives about this resource. for one it is renewable and doesn't produce pollution. but n the other hand it is very expensive and there are very few hydrogen fuel stations...... unless you live in California

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  102. On monday in class, we learned mainly about Hydrogen Fuel cells. We learned how they were much better than a regular car becuse the by- product is water. In the pre- lab powerpoint, I learned what Electrolysis was, the definition is: The process of using an electrical current to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. We also saw some pictures of what a gas station would look like for this "alternative" mode of transportation.

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  103. this week in the forum i learned that hydrogen fuel cells are starting to become what looks like the next fuel. the only problem is that the hydrogen fuel cars are way too expensive to buy and hydrogen fuel cell gas stations arent abundant at all

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  104. This week we watched the video about NREL. I learned that water is the only biproduct of this hydrogen fuel cell, and I think we should start makeing these types of cars.

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  105. The video about NREL taught the viewer that water is the only byproduct of hydrogen fuel cells. There are cars that are hydrogen fuel cars. These cars can be bought but there to expensive. And the hydrogen fuel cell gas stations are not abundant.

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  106. we had guest speakers and they talked about NREl and that they are trying to my hydrogen fuel cells for cars and for a diffrent sorce of energy and the oly biproudet is water

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  107. The guest speaker in the forum talked about NREL and hydrogen fuel cells. These are very efficient and emit no pollutants but they are expensive and it is difficulf to find refill stations.

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  108. the video we watched in the forum was mainly about hydrogen fuel cells, and how they're more efficent and eco-friendly than gasoline. hydrogens only by-product is water, it's a renewable energy source, and its more powerful than gasoline. the bad side is that, admittedly, there aren't really any hydrogen cars or refuel stations in the country.

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  109. This week in class the speakers from NREL came and talk to us. While they were her we discussed renewable energy and their work on a hydrgen fuel cell car. Although right now the car is to expensive and high maitnence for our community, we are looking for different ways to improve the way that the car works.

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  110. This week we learned about Hydrogen, as a fuel used in a fuel cell. It is a clean and efficient fuel source. We alsoo learned about the process of spliting water into hydrogen and oxygen for use in a fuel cell called electrolysis.

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  111. in class 2 speakers from NREL came in and talked about renewable energy like hydrogen powered cars and other vehicles. They also showed us how it works and did an experiment on the front table. They also showed a very informitive powerpoint

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