2008 Winner Profiles
Technological Challenge
Second Place
Hydrogen Hybrid
Rosalia High School, Rosalia
Kristina Peterschick, Dan Lazcano, Trevor Sheld, Chelsea Sims, John Kuhn
Advisor: Dee Peterschick
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Motivated by soaring gas prices, this team of students decided to design an alternative to the gasoline engine: a hydrogen hybrid. Using a donated lawnmower engine, air conditioner coils, dishwasher hoses, and other salvaged parts, they created an engine that starts on gasoline, and then switches to run on hydrogen.
The students used electrolysis to separate hydrogen and oxygen molecules in water, a process that requires heat and pressure. Unlike most hydrogen engines, which use a potentially hazardous hydrogen fuel cell, the students’ innovation performs electrolysis within the engine, so that hydrogen is present for only a short time before it is burned.
The team noted that a round trip across the state of Washington using their engine would require just one gallon of gas and 20 gallons of water.