Hydrogen: the future of cars?
We’re heading towards a greener future, which could mean switching from petrol to hydrogen power
Our planet’s changing ecosystem means that our cars need to change too, which is why electric cars have become popular and why hydrogen fuel cells are now being touted as another option for green motoring. There’s plenty of good news. For starters, there’s a lot of hydrogen about: it’s Earth’s most common element and it can be extracted from water, natural gas, biomass and several other sources. It’s not toxic, in theory there’s an almost unlimited supply and vehicles powered by hydrogen only emit water and heat, not harmful greenhouse gases.
Hydrogen cars have an impressive range when compared to electric vehicles, often matching conventional cars, and they can be refuelled in five minutes. That compares well to electric cars, which take hours to charge. They’re quiet, too.
But the bad news is significant. Hydrogen can be efficient, but lots of fossil fuels are currently used to create hydrogen – and that undermines everything. That will have to change if hydrogen is to become viable, but biomass, solar, wind and other renewable sources are being developed.
There are also questions around efficiency elsewhere. Positively, however, the US Department of Energy estimates that conventional petrol engines run at around 20 per cent efficiency, while hydrogen fuel cell engines are between 40 and 60 per cent efficient. That’s great, but more energy is required to compress, transport and store hydrogen, and renewable methods used to produce hydrogen may not always be very efficient.
There’s not much in terms of infrastructure, either, with only around 20 filling stations in the UK. At least 100 will be needed to provide the bare minimum of national coverage. If you want a stark comparison, consider that there are more than 37,500 electric charging points across the UK. While hydrogen fuel cells are an exciting option, there’s still a long road ahead.