how do you use water to run a car? as one would think hydrogen is produced but isnt that flamible so how do you prevent

Question: how do you use water to run a car? as one would think hydrogen is produced but isnt that flamible so how do you prevent this
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- Royal Society of Chemistry: Find out more on:
  
  car
  
  chemistry
  
  energy
  
  harmful
Asked by to Jemma on 15 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
- Jemma Rowlandson answered on 15 Jun 2014:
  
  Hi Emily!
  
  Great question and you absolutely spot on, hydrogen is produced but in this case that’s actually what we want to happen. All fuels actually have to be flammable to go into an engine (even petrol and diesel) otherwise they would not work and your car would not move anywhere.
  
  What we do first is make the hydrogen gas from water. Water is made of three atoms; two hydrogens and one oxygen. If you flow electricity through it you can split the water apart to make oxygen gas and hydrogen gas.
  
  Next you want to put the hydrogen in your car. You need a special petrol tank for this, because hydrogen is a gas it takes up a lot of space and escapes easily. Normally you squash it into a compressed gas cylinder which is able to store lots of hydrogen (but is very expensive and heavy).
  
  Finally hydrogen can either be put into an engine (just like we do with diesel and petrol), or we put it into a fuel cell. A fuel cell is a bit like a battery but it uses hydrogen and air to power your car, and the best bit is only water comes out of the exhaust pipe! There’s not nasty gases produced like when you use diesel or petrol. The water from a fuel cell is actually so clean you could actually drink it straight from the car’s exhaust pipe, or use it to fill a fish tank!

Question: how do you use water to run a car? as one would think hydrogen is produced but isnt that flamible so how do you prevent this

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