A Hydrogen fuel cell vehicle(FCV) takes around 2-3 minutes in refueling and can run up to 320-450 km in one go. It also emits only water vapour as waste. No fossil fuel, no CO2… wow! That’s amazing but why don’t we see hydrogen cars running on roads? Why are car companies not making hydrogen cars? Let’s find out.
Almost more than a decade ago two practical solutions were thought to be found to finally replace the fossil fuel in vehicles. The world was looking towards electricity and hydrogen with hope as the two possible contenders for running our future cars. Among them, hydrogen seemed more attractive and exciting as it would take the same time to refuel as fossil fuel cars and would exhaust only water vapor. The excitement and hope were so robust about hydrogen that George W. Bush, the then-president of the USA announced a whopping 1.3 billion dollars in 2003. Car manufacturers started to plan to unleash the power of hydrogen in car engines and infrastructure for car filling stations was set to fuel those engines. But after 10-15 years we see no hydrogen filling stations and no cars with only a few exceptions. Electric cars have certainly gone far ahead in this race with slow and steady speed.
Today there are only three models of hydrogen cars available in the market: Toyota Mirai(2014), Honda Clarity(2016), and Hyundai Nexo(2018). Now think about electric cars in the market. You would get a variety of them from various car manufacturers in fact almost every car maker has launched their own version of the electric car.
The rapid evolution of EVs was powered by Elon Musk and his company Tesla which other automakers joined soon now the growth rate of the global EV market is around 29 percent and total EV sales are estimated to reach 2030 to 31 million from 2.5 million in 2020. For electric car makers such as Tesla, there is a lot at stake and everything could be destroyed if Hydrogen cars would make a robust re-entry in the market. Maybe that provoked Elon Musk to say hydrogen fuel cells are a “mind-boggling stupid idea”. He called it “fool cells” and told his investors that “success is simply not possible’’. The harsh statement by Elon Musk was certainly to attract more investors and customers to the idea of electric cars and to Tesla. That statement must have hurt the sentiment of scientists and companies researching improved hydrogen fuel cell technology. Some other EV makers have shared the same thought as Elon Musk and that may cause trouble getting investors in hydrogen research and development. Apart from EV makers’ corporate interest we also have to see whether these claims have any ground and if not then why hydrogen-powered cars are less popular in the market.
Hydrogen fuel cell technology and its cost:
Engines running on hydrogen are called Hydrogen fuel cells (FCV) or hydrogen fuel electric cells (FCEV). In such engines, there are batteries where Hydrogen gets separated into electrons and protons in the presence of Oxygen. Electrons were moved to a different path that is used as electricity and finally meet with oxygen to be converted into water molecules as a byproduct. These types of batteries are small and take lesser space than EV batteries but unfortunately, this system is not fully developed to complete the needs of consumers and carmakers, in other words, this technology is still quite costly, and that raises the price of an FCEV three times more than a BEV(battery-powered electric vehicle). That is one of the main reasons why not so many companies show interest in FCEV.
The source of Hydrogen:
The process of extracting hydrogen is neither energy efficient nor carbon neutral. More than 90% of hydrogen is extracted from fossil fuels and that process emits a whole lot of CO2 and other greenhouse gases. Another process to obtain hydrogen is reverse electrolysis where water is separated into its components: hydrogen and oxygen. This process needs a high amount of electricity and the whole process is not energy efficient and costs too much. Electricity in this process may be obtained from renewable sources but that too would not make this process efficient. Unless industrial hydrogen is produced through the conventional process every effort to lower down CO2 emissions with hydrogen energy is futile.
Future of Hydrogen vehicles:
Despite some drawbacks and hurdles in running a hydrogen-powered engine, we have some hope in front of us. Toyota, Hyundai, and Honda have already developed cars for passengers running on hydrogen and they somehow inspire other car makers as well to design a more efficient and affordable model. Many scientists and engineers are working on the technology but like electric vehicles, Hydrogen technology also needs Elon Musk who could start a real talk about it even if by his stupid, outrageous, fantasized presence. That would help hydrogen to gain some publicity. Because all we need here is more money for R&D to construct a super feasible engine that removes the worry of CO2 emission forever.
In the near future, until we don’t increase our renewable sources of electricity or improve the FCEV technology, automakers can utilize hydrogen in buses, trucks, and heavy vehicles. BEVs are surely not an answer for heavy vehicles as they would require a huge battery and much spare time to charge the battery. This is the field where hydrogen can easily beat BEVs but awareness is still required for investors and governments to fund such research. Now we can only hope to see a green future in our lifetime.
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