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25 June 2024 What are hydrogen cars and hydrogen fuel? Advantages and disadvantages
Hydrogen presents a cleaner, more renewable fuel alternative to natural gas, methane, petrol, and diesel. There are several ways the gas can be produced, including by using biogas, solar or wind energy to separate the hydrogen particles in water. Once produced, it can be stored as either a gas or a liquid.
What are hydrogen cars?
Also known as hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (FCVs), hydrogen cars are essentially vehicles that use hydrogen to generate electricity which powers an electric motor. They operate in a similar way to electric vehicles (EVs), using electric propulsion to get the car from A to B. The difference is you only have to wait a few minutes to refuel instead of spending hours charging an EV car battery.
How does a hydrogen engine work?
Pure hydrogen cars don’t use a conventional internal combustion engine (ICE); instead they use a hydrogen fuel cell system to power an electric motor which transfers this power to propel the wheels. This process starts with the high-pressure gas tank where the hydrogen is stored.
The gas then makes its way to the fuel cell stack, consisting of a series of individual cells. Each cell has a negative and positive electrode which are separated by an electrolyte membrane.
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The hydrogen first passes through the negative side while oxygen is pulled into the positive side of the cell. This causes the hydrogen molecules to chemically react and split into protons and electrons. The protons move through the electrolyte membrane to the positively charged side, while the electrons travel through an external circuit, generating an electric current.
The current goes to the motor and the protons and oxygen molecules that are left behind mix to form water vapour. This is the only byproduct of the fuel.
There are, however, hydrogen-powered ICE vehicles which operate in a more familiar way, using the classic car pistons, a camshaft, and a crankshaft. The piston compresses the hydrogen mixture in the chamber and the spark plug produces a spark to ignite it, forcing the piston downward. The energy is transferred to the crankshaft and the rest is history.
Hydrogen fuel advantages and disadvantages
Pros
- It doesn’t create harmful emissions
One of the main advantages of using hydrogen as a fuel is that it does not release harmful emissions when burned and it can be widely produced due to its vast sources, including elements such as water.
- It’s suitable for heavy-duty vehicles and transportation
While electrified vehicles are now very popular, they aren’t always the most convenient option. For instance, large vehicles used in the shipping and logistics industries, such as cargo trains, would need ginormous battery packs and frequent charging due to the scale and long distances travelled. This is where hydrogen provides a more feasible alternative.
- It’s efficient
A petrol engine only uses about 20% to 25% of the fuel’s energy potential, the rest of it is mostly wasted heat energy. The hydrogen fuel cell system uses twice as much of its energy. Hydrogen vehicles also have a much longer range than EVs.
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Cons
- It’s tricky to store and transport
One of the key disadvantages of hydrogen fuel cells is that the gas is difficult and very expensive to transport from the supplier to the end user. It requires the use of special pipelines and refuelling stations as those designed for methane and natural gas are incompatible. Moreover, the current infrastructure isn’t sufficient for widespread use of hydrogen fuel.
Due to its low energy density by volume, it has to be compressed at pressures ranging from 350 to 700 bar to be stored in a tank in large enough quantities or cooled to extremely low temperatures.
- Not all hydrogen is “clean”
Unfortunately, roughly 96% of the world’s hydrogen is currently produced using non-renewable or toxic resources, such as coal (brown hydrogen), gas (grey) or nuclear power (pink). This type of hydrogen is the cheapest to produce but far from being ‘green’. Hopefully, this will change as governments aim to meet ambitious emissions targets.
- The gas is highly flammable
It requires special attention during transportation and storage as the gas is highly flammable in large quantities. On the other hand, FCVs are no more dangerous to drive than petrol or diesel cars in terms of the fire risk.
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