Hydrogen—The Renewable Resource of the Future
Current uses
The ultimate objective for hydrogen as a motor fuel is use in a fuel cell vehicle (FCV’s). Fuel cells, currently in experimental use, harness the chemical energy of hydrogen to general electricity with out combustion or pollution. Fuel cells extract the energy from hydrogen and generate electricity that powers the vehicle, with water (H20) as the only byproduct. In addition, nearly all the environmental benefits of fuel cells can be achieve by modifying internal combustion engine vehicles (H2 ICE’s) to operate on hydrogen. The potential advantage of H2 ICEs is that in the short- to medium- term timeframes, they are likely to be much more affordable to produce and purchase than fuel cell vehicles.
Hydrogen requires special handling for delivery and use in automobiles. Because hydrogen is such a light gas, it is difficult to store a large amount in a small space. That is a challenge for auto engineers who want to match today’s 300-mile vehicle range. Today’s H2 ICE and FCV prototypes use compressed gaseous hydrogen tanks or liquid hydrogen tanks. New technologies using solid fuel storage, such as metal hydrides and chemical hydrides may become viable in the future. Another option would be to store hydrogen compounds—methanol, gasoline, diesel or other compounds—on board, and extract the hydrogen (using a reformer) when the vehicle is operating.
Since fuel cells convert hydrogen into electricity, the main question on everybody’s mind is “where and how am I going to get the hydrogen to fill up my fuel cell car?” If auto engineers choose to store hydrogen compounds on board the vehicle, tomorrow’s fuel infrastructure would look a lot like todays. Many other options are being explored to deliver hydrogen to fuel cell vehicles (FCV’s).