Hydrogen cars

Often when the energy discussion is brought up, hydrogen cars are mentioned. Hydrogen Cars can be a important way to solve our dependency of oil and stop the global warming. In the future usage of renewable energies like wind, solar and hydropower hydrogen are being produced stored and used in fuel cells in cars. Beside the usage of hydrogen storage and fuel cells in cars provides car manufactures with new possibilities in car design and production.

A hydrogen car uses hydrogen as fuel instead of gasoline. Hydrogen is stored in a tank either under pressure, in liquid form or in metal hydrides. From the tank, hydrogen is conducted to the fuel cell where it is converted into electricity through an electrochemical process. The electricity is then conducted to electrical motors in the wheels where the electricity feeds the motor. You can see the principles of a hydrogen car with the GM Sequal.

Most car manufactures are developing prototypes and small series of hydrogen cars, and as an example, Honda has announced that it will start production in 2009 or 2010. Today, it is no longer a discussion whether hydrogen cars will be mass-produced; it is only a matter of when! The hydrogen society is not science fiction - it is science fact!

Hydrogen cars have a significantly higher efficiency than conventional combustion engines. Typically, the efficiency of a combustion engine is around 20-25%, while a PEM (Proton Exchange Membrane) fuel cell will have an efficiency of up to 60%. A fuel cell produces water as the only exhaust, which makes it a clean and efficiency energy technology, especially if the hydrogen has been produced from renewable energies.The biggest challenge for the hydrogen cars is hydrogen storage. Storage can occur in gas under pressure, in liquid form, or in solid materials like metal hydrides. A global standard has yet to be found, and researchers are still working to find better, cheaper and safer methods to store hydrogen.Another challenge for hydrogen cars is the fact that there are only few hydrogen gas stations. It is the "chicken and egg" problem. Energy companies will not build hydrogen gas stations before there are hydrogen cars to service, and users will not buy hydrogen cars before they can fill their cars at the places where they drive. To get started with usage of hydrogen for road transportation, there are many initiatives, such as the Hydrogen HighWay. in California where the aim is to establish 50-100 hydrogen gas stations before 2010, and the Hydrogen Link) in the Nordic countries where Denmark, Sweden, Norway and North of Germany are linked together in a network of establishing a corridor of hydrogen filling stations.
However It will take decades before a infrastructure established enough for everyone to use a hydrogen driven car. We still need technological improvements and huge investments before the hydrogen society will be a reality. Before we will see regular hydrogen cars on our roads, we will see small fleets of vehicles for small transportation purposes being introduced to the market. The H2 Truck. project from Denmark is one of the first batch produced hydrogen vehicles. In these vehicles, batteries are replaced with fuel cells and refilled with hydrogen with a small hydrogen filling placed in the area of use of where the vehicles are being used, this could be hospitals, in airports and schools etc.