Hydrogen fuelled cars beat batteries all round

SIR – Phasing out petrol and diesel vehicles from 2040 has been seen universally as ushering in the age of battery power.

Early elimination of hydrocarbon fuel is essential. There is, however, a better choice for a vehicle propulsion system. It is the hydrogen fuel cell electric power system. Hydrogen fuel is converted to water in the fuel cell as it reacts with oxygen from the air. There are no other emissions.

The huge advantage of fuel cells over battery power is that they can easily give cars a range of 400 miles.

The challenge is to build a hydrogen supply infrastructure to provide fuelling facilities at existing filling stations. The technology is developed and could be implemented rapidly.

The hydrogen required can be cheaply produced, with 100 per cent of the by-product CO2 being captured for disposal in geological formations using existing technology.

A car powered by a hydrogen fuel cell is a small electric power station that sits by your house when not in use. The cell can be connected to the electrical system of your house and generate efficiently all the electricity you need domestically.

Battery power instead would mean providing a large increase in the UK capacity for electrical power generation, and all this new capacity must be based on carbon-free systems such as nuclear, renewable wind and solar. This is a huge new capital requirement which must be paid for.

Hydrogen power would eliminate the need for any additional power generation capacity by using an abundant fuel source, natural gas, directly to produce high-pressure hydrogen gas or liquid hydrogen.

I believe that the Government has been premature in focusing on battery power while ignoring the alternative of a hydrogen-fuelled power system.

I urge the Government to set up a competent independent expert review to assess the merits of these two approaches to our future energy. Rodney Allam

Chippenham, Wiltshire