Bio fuels:fuel cells solar and hydro power

The current is actually by ionising 4hydrogen atoms to form 4 protons and 4 electrons, the protons because of some filter pass straight through to the oxygen and the electrons, which aren't allowed to pass the barrier, travel the circuit and induce current.

It is easy to see that though at the anode the protons and electrons split they join at the end along with oxygen to form water.

Aside from this the fuel cell car, seems a little impractical, the volume of oxygen needed for the reaction is easily obtainable from the air around us, but the hydrogen on the other hand is a lot more difficult to get and even more difficult to transport usable and practical amounts of it. Ethanol is used and "reformed" to produce hydrogen gas and carbon dioxide, trying hard to reduce the amount of carbon monoxide produce. This still contributes to carbon dioxide emission but I imagine this produces less carbon dioxide and few other waste gases because the reaction the ethanol undergoes uses a catalyst, specific for only that reaction not helping any impurities react and escape.

Hydroelectricity:

Hydro electrical power stations are found often in mountainous regions with large rivers flowing down the mountains. They are useful because in the foreseeable future the water wont dry up and MOST importantly, no hazardous bi-products are formed during the production of the electricity. Also the production of the energy can be a 24hour thing. On the other hand however power may not be needed 24hours a day so the person producing it will just sell it off cheap.

This system runs using the power of gravity. Inlets are opened to allow water from the above reservoir to enter the station, this in turn, turns a turbine which powers a generator. The generator is where the electricity is produced.

Concerning the stations themselves, the massive buildings cant be set up anywhere and a place like the east midlands, flat is not ideal for the creation of a damn and reservoir. Lastly, the amount of money needed to set up an hydroelectric power station would be huge.

Solar cells.

Solar cells work by using the sun as their power sources, the point being that the sun will be there for a long time and we may as well use the energy it is providing us. The solar cells are laid into panels and a number of panels used together are called a solar array.

This solar array has many uses, from powering a simple calculator to powering whole space missions. Basically photovoltaic cells work because as photons, or packets of energy from the sun, hit the electrons of the materials inside solar panel, these increasingly excited electron find it easier to move and therefore induce a current.

The one obvious major advantage is the fact that the source of energy is free and readily available, also no waste products are produced at all and he energy will be around for a long time and the technology is slowly becoming more widely available. Though on the downside, at the moment solar energy is costly to produce as top end solar arrays are very expensive, there ability to work is directly dependant on the area and the time. and somewhat inefficient.

) Sunlight excites the material and therefore electrons move more, volume of electrons increases and the blue semiconductor becomes negatively polar so repels the electrons.

2) The electrons are attracted the competitively positively charged semiconductor so move across the gap.

3) This movement and the subsequent movements of the electrons around the rest of the circuit allow current to flow.