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It's hard to get , expensive and pretty pointless...It uses either a combustion engine or fuel cell to generate electricity, then store it in batteries to power an electric motor...seems pretty redundant to me...It's a overcomplicated and expensive tesla
There are huge advantages to fuel cells.
1) it’s easy to make hydrogen. You can cook it up using solar panels if you want a green version.
2) it’s portable. 300-400 mile range fits in the same space your gas tank is already in and refill time is similar to conventional fuel.
3) it’s scalable. Since throwing more batteries at bigger vehicles makes them heavier and thus need more batteries. Fuel cells can keep the weight down dramatically. Space Shuttles created electricity using fuel cells. If they had used today’s lithium ion batteries it wouldn’t have gotten off the ground. As a bonus, the astronauts drank the water they created.
4) it doesn’t degrade range at low temperatures like a BEV does.
The batteries on a fuel cell are very small compared to a BEV.
For most applications like driving back and forth to work for a 20 mile round trip, a fuel cell isn’t practical nor necessary (neither is a 300 mile battery). For a semi truck or cruise ship however, fuel cells make a lot more sense.
There are huge advantages to fuel cells.
1) it’s easy to make hydrogen. You can cook it up using solar panels if you want a green version.
2) it’s portable. 300-400 mile range fits in the same space your gas tank is already in and refill time is similar to conventional fuel.
3) it’s scalable. Since throwing more batteries at bigger vehicles makes them heavier and thus need more batteries. Fuel cells can keep the weight down dramatically. Space Shuttles created electricity using fuel cells. If they had used today’s lithium ion batteries it wouldn’t have gotten off the ground. As a bonus, the astronauts drank the water they created.
4) it doesn’t degrade range at low temperatures like a BEV does.
The batteries on a fuel cell are very small compared to a BEV.
For most applications like driving back and forth to work for a 20 mile round trip, a fuel cell isn’t practical nor necessary (neither is a 300 mile battery). For a semi truck or cruise ship however, fuel cells make a lot more sense.
^^this^^ using fuel cells to make electricity is far better than using batteries.
pfff.
"The cheapest and easiest method of producing hydrogen is to extract it from methane (natural gas), though this process also produces carbon dioxide. " "A far cleaner method of manufacturing hydrogen is through the electrolysis of water, which produces hydrogen and oxygen." expensive.
" transporting hydrogen will be necessary, and transporting any fuel requires sticking it in big trucks (and potentially ships), which would once again need to be emissions-free for the process to be clean and carbon-free."
"Storing hydrogen efficiently, either on the back of a truck or underground at a service station, requires the hydrogen produced by electrolysis to be converted from a gas to a liquid, either by compressing the gas into a liquid or cooling it to liquid form. What does all this require? Yep, more energy."
Only these are enough to turn me off, and that's the tip of the iceberg
It's hard to get , expensive and pretty pointless..
Some forget or weren't even born when Los Angels and many other cities had constant smog.
All rivers were polluted with human waste and toxic chemicals too.
Times have changed haven't they?
China is filthy. China still dumps waste into rivesr and China still produces smog.
BUT China is working fast and furious toward alternative energy sources.
China is way ahead of the USA on solar panels and more.
We can all live in filth or we can chose to not to live in filth. Easy, ain't it.
OP, technology constantly moves forward, and while right now it is expensive to produce hydrogen from water, a breakthrough in technology could make it mush less expensive.
pfff.
"The cheapest and easiest method of producing hydrogen is to extract it from methane (natural gas), though this process also produces carbon dioxide. " "A far cleaner method of manufacturing hydrogen is through the electrolysis of water, which produces hydrogen and oxygen." expensive.
" transporting hydrogen will be necessary, and transporting any fuel requires sticking it in big trucks (and potentially ships), which would once again need to be emissions-free for the process to be clean and carbon-free."
"Storing hydrogen efficiently, either on the back of a truck or underground at a service station, requires the hydrogen produced by electrolysis to be converted from a gas to a liquid, either by compressing the gas into a liquid or cooling it to liquid form. What does all this require? Yep, more energy."
Only these are enough to turn me off, and that's the tip of the iceberg
All that is still true of BEVs or any other alternative fuel source. You’re simply focused on attacking one instead of the other.
Batteries are not a fuel source. Fuel cells create power. Hydrogen is the storage and as a storage medium it’s superior to batteries in terms of energy density, weight, portability, and refuel times.
You cannot wholesale replace every carbon emissions source with just a bunch batteries and solar panels and expect everything to work like it did before but without the carbon. The best can hope for is either make energy consumption more efficient and live with lower emissions, or live like a caveman. You can have it both ways.
It's hard to get , expensive and pretty pointless...It uses either a combustion engine or fuel cell to generate electricity, then store it in batteries to power an electric motor...seems pretty redundant to me...It's a overcomplicated and expensive tesla
But it seems like a cool idea to people who don't understand details.
Including but not limited to politicians, CEO's and marketing types.
I had a client who installed fuel cells in hospitals, hotels and sometimes houses. They ran on natural gas. They produced heat, water and oxygen from the natural gas. The hot water could be used for heating the building. their big drawback is they were very large and very expensive to install and maintain.
I do not know how the fuel cell gets hydrogen from the natural gas. I do not know how the fuel cell produces electricity whether it is part of the reaction, or the heat and water is used to turn a turbine. I just do not remember.
For a while the company had a deal with a home builder. Instead of a third garage bay, a home buyer could opt for a fuel cell. I think it cost $70,000. Pretty sure that was after the government subsidy. The fuel cell produced enough power for the whole house, and at night could produce power to sell back to the utility and thereby pay for the costs of the natural gas for all of its use. The purchase cost would eventually be recaptured through savings on energy bills. However the maintenance was an added cost.
I am pretty sure the company folded up in the recession and I have not heard anything more about this program since.
I do know they had some fuel cell buses running in Chicago and a fuel cell car in California (Toyota). Suddenly I heard nothing more about the whole fuel cell thing. Possibly in large part becausee I no longer had the client feeding me links and other reports and information.
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