Hydrogen Fuel Cell Cars: The Best Solution? Tim Cahill and Ryan Saran

A Hydrogen car uses hydrogen as its on- board fuel for motive power. Hydrogen cars covert hydrogen energy to torque by two methods: –Combustion –Electrochemical Conversion

Combustion A series of exothermic reactions between fuel and an oxidant accompanied by heat and/or light. Hydrogen is burned by the engine. Very similar to the way that gasoline is used in traditional cars.

Electrochemical Conversion Hydrogen reacts with oxygen to produce electricity and water. More common among Hydrogen car prototypes.

Hydrogen Never found alone on Earth. Easily extracted when in a compound. Does not create energy, it carries it. Hydrogen produced from natural gas only has 50% of the original energy.

Benefits The benefits of switching to hydrogen vehicles clearly outweigh the disadvantages. Some advantages are: –Zero Emission Technology –Mileage –Foreign Oil

Zero Emission Technology Conventional fossil-fuel burning vehicles produce all sorts of poisons such as: –Carbon Dioxide –Carbon Monoxide –Nitrous Oxide *** The only emission of a hydrogen fuel cell car is water.

Foreign Oil Developing a economy of mass produced and effective hydrogen cars will reduce our dependency on foreign oil. Gas is clearly out of control and making this transition seems like the only way to get around at a reasonable price.

Problems Although many advancements in hydrogen technology has occurred, there still are many problems such as: –Fuel Cell Cost –Freezing Conditions –Storage –Hydrogen Infrastructure –Competition

Fuel Cell Cost Currently, fuel cells are costly and fragile We need to find a way to make inexpensive and tough fuel cells Many designs require rare substances like platinum as the catalyst.

Fuel Cell Cost cont. The catalyst can be contaminated by impurities in the hydrogen supply A nickel-tin catalyst is the most popular alternative for this problem.

Freezing Conditions Fuel cells produce water and utilize moist air, especially during startup. The current high for startup in freezing conditions is 50% power achieved in 30 seconds at -20 °C. Goal: 75% in 25 seconds at -15 °C.

Storage Hydrogen is considered a “bulky” gas. It is very difficult to store large amounts in the liquid state and even harder in the gas state.

Hydrogen Infrastructure Must get rid of typical gasoline pump stations and make them hydrogen pumps. Hydrogen pump stations have already begun to be produced in many places around the world.

Hydrogen infrastructure cont. In California, private and public initiatives have been taken to build a “Hydrogen Highway” This has already begun production and has a sufficient amount of pump stations to support the travel of the latest hydrogen car prototypes.

President Bush has already raised $2 billion in Hydrogen Highway research and production.

Competition There is not clear way to see which types of green car will be primarily in the future. However, there is a strong possibility that all can be nearly perfect to the point where they are mass produced and sold to the public

Competition cont. There are two leading solutions to the conventional gasoline car excluding the hydrogen car. These the ICE Hybrid vehicle and the Electric vehicle.

ICE/PHEV Hybrid Vehicle ICE= Internal Combustion Engine PHEV= Plug-in hybrid Electric Vehicle Can be plugged into a electric grid and achieve higher gas mileage and lower emissions that other hybrids.

ICE/PHEV Hybrid Vehicle cont. In a 2006 article in Scientific American, argues that these vehicles will be standard in the automobile industry, rather than Hydrogen Fuel Cell Cars. Have huge disadvantages in their cost, weight, and size of battery.

ICE/PHEV Hybrid Vehicle cont.

Electric Cars Commonly referred to as a EV, which means Electric Vehicle. Typically more fuel efficient that fuel cell cars on a wheel-to-wheel basis. This is the main reason that these cars are gaining popularity.

Electric Cars cont.

Hydrogen cars are without a doubt the future. This is our problem to deal with and solve. A hydrogen economy is just around the bend. Will we be ready?