How are engineers working to remove the obstacles for one of the most promising technologies for the next generation of mass and personal transport? We’d like your questions for the people who are developing the elements for hydrogen-powered vehicles.
We’ve put together a panel from the hydrogen vehicle community, including vehicle developers, fuel cell specialists, hydrogen storage developers and the industrial gas sector to answer your questions on how this long-standing and promising technology might be deployed in electric vehicles in the coming decades.
Fuel cells, which combine hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity, are not a new technology; they date back almost two centuries, with the first discoveries in the field back in the late 1830s. Their first commercial use was over a century later, providing electrical power for NASA’s space probes, including the command and service modules of the Apollo Missions. Fuel cells are used by many organisations as part of their back-up power systems; some have even been integrated with solar cells and other renewable electricity generation systems to provide the current to make the hydrogen by electrolysing water.
More recently, fuel cells have been seen as one of the most promising technologies for electric cars, as they would fit into an infrastructure similar to that used by internal combustion engine vehicles: hydrogen would be sold at fuel stations where drivers could quickly fill up a storage tank via a pump from a large reservoir. Several large automotive companies, including Nissan, GM, BMW, Toyota and Mercedes-Benz, have produced demonstration fuel cell-powered vehicles, and around 100 fuel cell buses operate around the world. Over this summer, a small fleet of hydrogen-powered taxis operated in London.
But there are still many problems which need to be overcome for a larger deployment of hydrogen-powered vehicles. How can flammable, explosive hydrogen be transported and stored safely, both at fuel stations and in vehicles? How can the cost of fuel cells be reduced so that vehicles are within the budgets of every driver; and how can their performance be improved so that they deliver the power necessary for operation in all weather conditions? How much hydrogen would be needed to meet demand, and how should this be produced?
Answering your questions will be:
- Graham Cooley, chief executive officer of ITM Power, a UK company which develops fuel cells and hydrogen storage systems;
- Gérard Planche, fuel cell vehicle customer deployment manager at General Motors, which hopes to launch its HydroGen4 vehicle in 2015;
- Hugo Spowers, chief engineer of Riversimple, a company developing vehicles and infrastructure systems for networks of small fuel cell-powered city cars;
- Markus Bachmeier, head of hydrogen solutions at industrial gases specialist Linde.
Thanks for your questions. Comments are now closed.
Do the overall ‘well to wheel’ emmisions match or better those of a diesel engine yet
How will airborne pollutants including other vehicle combustion emissions affect the performance of the fuel cells, specifically through catalyst poisoning?
Is anyone seriously developing offshore hydrogen farms, using windmills to electrolyse sea water and store the hydrogen on a barge, then to be towed or pumped ashore? The oxygen produced as the other by-product would also need to be harvested or would it simply be released into the air?
Can anyone justify to me why hydrogen is not adding in an unnecessary step to power vehicles?
Why not use the electricity direct from power generation source rather than use to create hydrogen and lose efficiency along the way?
why is there so little being done on getting hydrogen from water, on board. much safer than in a tank. there is much said about what if, on the explosion side but also with a leak. people should run away from the drastic freezing effect followed by fire /explosion. on board water, much less risk & money
@ Anonymous: “Is anyone seriously developing offshore hydrogen farms, …to electrolyse sea water and store the hydrogen…?”
Answer: an early stage California company, Integrated Power Technology Corporation has patented mobile structures that store offshore aero-hydrokinetic energy as hydrogen or ammonia, based on seawater electrolysis or solid state ammonia synthesis, respectively. Conservative models indicate that at today’s ammonia spot price, the operating margin for such a vessel is better than 50% when operating in the North Atlantic or South Pacific “Roaring Forties”, and good margins from operating in these regions and providing hydrogen wholesale at less than $3USD/kg (gallon of gasoline equivalent, carbon free). Why these break-through margins? Because turbine power output is cubically proportional to motive fluid velocity, and over deep water is where the greatest wind flows. For instance, 9m/s yields twice the power of 7m/s, thus paying for roundtrip storage. Eliminating cabling, foundations, permitting and other regulatory costs pays for the “barges” themselves.
I hope this esteemed panel addresses:
– Hydrogen Embrittlement
– Preferred Storage: Compressed gas; cryo; or metal hydride?
– Alternatives to fuel cell platinum catalysts
– PEM poisoning/durability
Surely, if a Hydrogen distribution infrastructure is developed for fuel cell vehicles it will be hijacked by the internal combustion engine market which will be able to provide much cheaper vehicles which are equally green.
what about hydrogen micro beads?
Ballard Power Systems was once regarded as the global leader in the hydrogen fuel cell field – but fell from the sky back to dust. Which companies are serious contenders to lead the development of this industry in the next 5 years?
What advantages over electrically powered vehicles are there for hydrogen powered vehicles given the current state of both alternatives.
When fuel cells are used, there is a brown scum that builds up over them making it less efficient. What causes that?
The US military have trialled some equipment that can apparentely make synthetic jet fuel from sea water using electricity and electrolysis.
The aim is to be able to produce jet fuel without having to be re-fueled at sea or come back into port.
The fuel is very similar to kerosene or diesel, probably uses huge amounts of electricity but this would not be a problem in area with plenty of sun, hydroelectric or access to a nuclear reactor I.e. air craft carrier.
My point being that the fuel is way more safe than hydrogen to store, transport and use.
IF fuel cells can be made (1)affordable, and (2) sufficient hydrogen storage can be had to give the vehicle a range of >200 miles when running on fuel cell – electric, wouldn’t the incorporation of hydraulic drive increase the range by allowing less loading of the fuel cells during acceleration/deceleration?