Imagine if all that repulsive smog that came out of the tailpipes of cars could be cleaner, clearer, and safer. What if instead of toxic carbon emissions and caustic chemical mixtures, cars could emit a more familiar substance? What if that substance was water vapor? Hydrogen fuel cells have caused quite the uproar in the alternative vehicle industry. Hailed as one of the cleanest forms of energy that is currently out on the market, hydrogen atoms are converted to electricity with only water and heat as by-products, the combination of which produce steam. Well, that’s fantastic! Nothing but steam emissions would totally solve our pollution problem, right?

It’s not that simple. The main issue with producing energy this way is the source of the hydrogen that is used to power these fuel cells. Current methods of hydrogen production involve processing it out of natural gas, which in and of itself produces high levels of carbon emissions. Some researchers have considered using a more abundant and natural source of hydrogen, namely water. Considering water is an abundant resource (not necessarily just purified drinking water), this would be a very plausible source of energy for hydrogen fuel cells. There’s a catch, of course. Scientists were thinking of splitting water molecules using electricity and extracting the hydrogen to power the fuel cell. However, the electricity would be from the grid, and most of this energy is produced through the burning of fossil fuels. It appears that the feasibility of hydrogen cars is being attacked from every side.

But there is hope. It should be noted that hydrogen is by far one of the most abundant gases/elements in general in the natural world. As a result, the fuel source for hydrogen-powered cars is abundant. The gas mileage has been found to be incredible: prototypes have been found to get around 70 miles per gallon, compared to the average 20 or so for normal gasoline-powered cars. They are nearly noiseless, considering they don’t have to go through all the mechanical complexities inherent in an internal combustion engine. As a result of this bypassing of normal engine mechanics, hydrogen fuel cell engines are far more efficient, since they only require the splitting of a molecule. Hydrogen fuel cells in general are more scalable to whatever size product they need to power, from cell phones to power plants. But most of these benefits are outweighed by the cost and lack of durability of these engines. The infrastructure needed (i.e. gas stations) is included in the steep costs that will accompany any major commercial release of hydrogen cars. Talks have been in the works about having “mobile gas stations”, or giant trucks filled with hydrogen that hydrogen car users can fuel with at the various locations that these trucks are present. Seeing as states like California want 15% of their cars to be emissions-free by 2025 and hydrogen fuel cells are the primary source of emissions-free power, things like mobile refueling stations might come about sooner than we think. Hydrogen cars are even starting to beat out electric cars because of the much smaller refueling time. It is estimated that hydrogen tanks take about 8 minutes to refill, whereas Tesla cars take 1 hour of charging for every half hour of driving, which is an incredibly inefficient use of time.

Toyota released what can be considered the first mainstream commercial hydrogen car, and other companies followed suit. Hyundai is hopping on the bandwagon, expressing its commitment to creating hydrogen cars in the future. Hyundai’s sleek and stylish new concept car, the Intrado, looks very futuristic and kind of Batmobile-esque. These companies are also pushing the infrastructure, and attempting to construct hydrogen fueling stations to make it easier for the consumer to use as well. With all of this momentum and hype surrounding hydrogen cars, there is no doubt that we will be seeing a huge volume of them on the streets in the future. The clean emissions and the stellar range of travel make hydrogen the ideal fuel of the future. Though the technology is still young, hydrogen cars will be the thing to watch for in the coming years. If this excitement continues, hopefully one day we can finally see a clean world, where carbon emissions from cars are a thing of the past.

References:

http://money.usnews.com/money/personal-finance/articles/2008/01/11/hydrogenfuel-cells

http://www.triplepundit.com/2012/05/fuel-cell-energy-pros-cons/

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303743604579353251333111522