Future of Hydrogen Cars

Rising oil prices and global warming now has made government of many countries to think about alternative of petrol. Hydrogen is looking as one of the alternative for it but there are some pros and cons of Hydrogen base Vehicles.

Hydrogen vehicle :

A hydrogen vehicle is a vehicle that uses hydrogen as its on-board fuel for motive power. The term may refer to a personal transportation vehicle, such as an automobile, or any other vehicle that uses hydrogen in a similar fashion, such as an aircraft. The power plants of such vehicles convert the chemical energy of hydrogen to mechanical energy (torque) in one of two methods: combustion, or electrochemical conversion in a fuel-cell:

In combustion, the hydrogen is burned in engines in fundamentally the same method as traditional gasoline (petrol) cars.

In fuel-cell conversion, the hydrogen is reacted with oxygen to produce water and electricity, the latter of which is used to power an electric traction motor

A potential advantage of hydrogen is that it could be produced and consumed continuously, using solar, water, wind and nuclear power for electrolysis.

Disadvantage Hydrogen Vehicles :

Hydrogen vehicles utilizing hydrogen produce more pollution than vehicles consuming gasoline, diesel, or methane .This is because, although hydrogen fuel cells generate no CO2, production of the hydrogen creates additional emissions. While methods of hydrogen production that do not use fossil fuel would be more sustainable, currently such production is not economically feasible, and diversion of renewable energy to the production of hydrogen for transportation applications is inadvisable.

Hydrogen fuel difficulties

1. Fuel cell cost :Hydrogen fuel cells are costly to produce and fragile

2. Freezing conditions : Freezing conditions are a major consideration because fuel cells produce water and utilize moist air with varying water content.

The main problem with Hydrogen base vehicle is that production of the cars because to manufacture one car it costs around 100,000$ which is more than one Ferrari car. Second problem is where to find hydrogen fuelling stations, even oil companies not going to spend tens of billions of dollars building a hydrogen fuelling infrastructure for few cars. Only in California Hydrogen fueling stations are available.

Recently Honda has launched Hydrogen base car called FCX Clarity’s. It is the first hydrogen-powered fuel cell car to hit the mini-mass market. The FCX Clarity’s fuel-cell unit can generate up to 100 kilowatts of electricity, enough to accelerate the car from zero to 60 miles an hour in less than nine seconds, and give it top speeds of 100 miles an hour.