10 June 2007

Problems with Hydrogen Cars

One of the problems with hydrogen is the availability. If you had a hydrogen car today, virtually no service station has hydrogen available. Plug-in electric cars, however, can be plugged into a power point at home.

Hydrogen also has low energy density. Ten liters of petrol will bring a sedan 100km but 16 liters of LPG is needed to bring the same car the same distance. Even more hydrogen is needed, which means bigger tanks. This presents a major problem in terms of carrying the stuff in your car as well as transporting it one trucks from one place to another. Solutions to the problem include compression of the hydrogen, but that will create more emissions.

Hydrogen is also scarce and is usually made from electrolysis of water, which requires electricity, which usually requires coal, which produces emissions. Many scientists believe converting electricity to hydrogen, compressing it, distributing it, and then passing it through a fuel cell again to create electricity is a lot more wasteful than simply bringing the electricity straight from the power plant into an electric car.

No comments: