Hydrogen cars, a viable alternative?

Hydrogen could be the ideal alternative to achieve sustainable mobility because it has many advantages over electric ones. However, like electricity, it also has its shadows. And the lack of infrastructure is still much greater than that of recharging the electric car.

Hydrogen fuel cell cars are zero emissions and have the same autonomy as combustion vehicles. In addition, they are not plugged in and their tanks are filled in just five minutes, in an operation similar to filling a gasoline or diesel tank.

A hydrogen car has an electric motor that is powered by energy from the fuel cell. This battery is not plugged in anywhere, but instead a chemical reaction takes place between the hydrogen stored in the car’s tanks and the oxygen that comes from outside the vehicle. The electricity generated by this reaction, which accumulates in a small battery, is what moves the vehicle.

In addition to the hydrogen in its tanks, this technology needs air, which it collects from the outside, filters and purifies it, and then expels it through the exhaust pipe along with water vapour. Another beneficial plus for the environment. Likewise, hydrogen is not only used to move vehicles but can be used in homes or industry to generate electricity or heating in a completely clean way.

Lights and shadows

So far, all are advantages, but hydrogen as a fuel also has its downsides. The most important is that if the energy source used to generate the hydrogen is not 100% sustainable, this energy will not be as clean as it would be desirable. That is the difference between green hydrogen, 100% renewable, or brown hydrogen, which is produced on a large scale in the world.

Hydrogen is an element found in nature, mainly in water, and is an inexhaustible source of energy. However, for hydrogen to serve as fuel it must be produced at an industrial level since it is always linked to another chemical element, from which it must be dissociated. It is the hydrolysis of water.

energy vector

For this operation, which requires a large amount of energy, the ideal is to use renewable sources, such as photovoltaic, wind or hydraulic energy… In reality, hydrogen is considered an energy vector. That means that it is something where we put a lot of energy, but then we can always move those hydrogen deposits and we will have the associated energy.

But, as with electricity, hydrogen is not always obtained in a 100% renewable way. Electricity and hydrogen are still generated in the world with polluting sources such as coal, petroleum products, or natural gas, for example. Some processes are not clean with nature.

Refueling hydrogen is a simple and safe operation, it only takes about 5 minutes but there are no hydrogen generators.

Another problem that car manufacturers encounter when launching hydrogen models is the almost complete absence of ‘hydrogens’. Only in some northern European countries can it be found in significant numbers. They are open to the public in California, in Germany where there are almost 90 operational refueling stations, or in the Nordic countries. But for example in Spain there is not a single one that is open to the public in which hydrogen can be refueled at 700 bars of pressure.

A ‘hydrogenera’ is a service station similar to those that dispense gasoline and diesel. Hydrogen, which can be stored and transported, is found in large tanks and is delivered to vehicles through a hose similar to the one used with other fuels. However, the security of these establishments has not yet been achieved 100%. In addition, the pressure and the temperature at which the hydrogen is maintained are, respectively, very high or very low.

Reduce emissions

In short, hydrogen, as an inexhaustible source of energy, would be a great solution to reduce polluting emissions not only from road traffic, but also from maritime or air mobility, or those produced by heating homes or industries in their production processes. However, the key is that its production must always be from efficient sources and zero pollutants. If this is not the case, we cannot speak of clean energy.

And it has a major problem, the lack of supply points that greatly complicates the development and deployment of this new energy source. Currently, Toyota and Hyundai are the only two brands that regularly offer hydrogen-powered vehicles on a sufficient scale, a technology that is still far from widespread use.