Hydrogen Fuel Cell Cars are the Future

When analyzing what the future of automobiles looks like, you must think about the past as well to determine the needs of the future. Mainly looking at the evolution of automobiles up to this point, and the needs for the future evolution of them. The past can create a trend that can lead to the future, which can be seen through older articles and studies about automobiles and authors predicting the future. Currently, it looks like the future is headed towards hydrogen fuel cell cars as they are the most efficient vehicle being researched and produced. But what exactly is going to ensure that the hydrogen fuel cell car continues to be developed and made more efficient to adapt to the future’s needs. 

A hydrogen powered car is the future of automobiles because it is the most efficient. The word efficient is generally misinterpreted by many, when referring to automobiles it brings in many factors. These factors being cost of the vehicle, cost of the fuel, environmental cost, maintenance cost, max distance, and power. The cost of these vehicles is around the price of a standard base model sedan today, so around forty thousand dollars. Considering how expensive electric cars are, it makes hydrogen cars a much better option as they are nearly half the price. The cost of fuel though is very cheap, being around a dollar per gallon. This is much cheaper than gasoline and is nearly as cheap as the addition to a standard family home when charging an electric car. The environmental cost of these cars is about the same as an electric car if not better as they  are just burning hydrogen. While electric cars are obtaining the energy to charge them from power plants that burn fossil fuels. Maintenance of hydrogen cars is nearly the same as an everyday new gasoline powered car, being just normal monthly maintenance and check overs. And the motors used are very similar to those of gasoline powered cars so it is very easy to find someone to work on it, unlike electric cars. These cars also have the same power and distance of for example, a honda civic. As a gasoline powered honda civic has around 300-400 miles of range and a few hundred horsepower. And a honda civic can be made into a hydrogen powered car and have similar outputs for horsepower and max range. 

Hydrogen fuel cell cars are a lesser known type of automobile because they aren’t produced in large numbers. Currently, hydrogen powered cars are still being developed and researched to make them even more efficient. The majority of hydrogen powered cars are driven around as advertisements as they are rarely open for the public to purchase. There are plenty of videos of people going to hydrogen pumps filling up their car for under five dollars, which is great advertisement for these vehicles. It is shown that the people that do have these vehicles pay bare minimum for fuel compared to filling up a normal gasoline powered vehicle. This is because these cars get the equivalent of 70 miles to a gallon and the price per gallon of hydrogen being from around a dollar to a dollar eighty. Most of these cars have relatively small tanks, only being able to hold about four to five gallons. So in all it costs less than 5 dollars to travel 300 miles in one of these hydrogen cars (Hydrogen Energy Systems, 1). 

After an interview with Byran Maul, he concluded that hydrogen cars would most certainly be the vehicle of the future. He is a civil engineer for VDOT, and purchases all equipment used in his district. And he talked about a more industrial side of things and less of daily commuting. One big thing he said is, “when working with some of the larger equipment, the batteries and motors would have to be massive to convert the equipment to electric. Think about trying to make an excavator electric and having to wait for the batteries to charge and not getting much run time. We need equipment that is ready to go for jobs that last days without needing to be refilled. Which is why hydrogen powered equipment would be the most efficient and a lot cheaper than making everything electric” (Maul).  This makes a lot of sense considering it would be expensive to convert all equipment to electric or purchase all new electric equipment. While hydrogen equipment would be much cheaper to purchase and maintain. Mechanics that worked on the gasoline and diesel powered equipment could also work on the hydrogen powered equipment. This is because the engines are primarily the same, with different computers and fueling systems. 

From an article, “Hybrid Cars Now, Fuel Cell Cars Later”, many conclusions are drawn about where the fuel cell car is headed. One point that truly stands out in the article is when the author said, “Fuel Cell cars aren’t there yet”. This point centers that hybrid cars do dominate the industry right now and will continue to for a while. But when fuel cell cars are more funded and research is continued, fuel cell cars will be on top. They also bring in how efficient fuel cell cars are compared to traditional combustion powered vehicles and hybrid vehicles. One table is a flow chart of how much energy is put in, and how much is regenerated or used. Fuel cell cars in all require the least energy, while regenerating the same amount back through regenerative braking like a hybrid car does (Demirdöven and Deutch, 975). Regenerative braking is where energy is produced from the friction of the breaks. And if the Hydrogen fuel cell car has a battery to use to assist the vehicle like a hybrid, the energy from the breaks can be used to charge it. 

Most people view electric cars as being the all around perfect choice for efficiency. When looked at as simply emissions, electric cars are very efficient. But when maintenance and max distance come into play, electric cars become less efficient. Maintenance on these cars is one of the largest hassles of owning them considering nobody works on them besides the dealership. Even something as small as getting a tire changed, most shops will not change the tires on for example a Tesla. This is because they have foam in the tires to make the road noise quieter. So even just to get a tire you the car must be either shipped or taken to a Tesla dealership or one of the very rare electric vehicle shops. Not only is maintenance a problem but convenience is as well. Unless a day consists of driving for under 300 miles, finding a charging station for the car will be necessary. This can cause great inconveniences for driving an electric car, especially in more rural areas where there are no charging stations. The last problem with these cars is that the majority of people are provided their home’s electricity from power plants that burn Fossil fuels. So in all it defeats the purpose of using an electric car to save the environment when the energy being burned is from fossil fuels. But hydrogen fuel is made in ways that do very little to no harm to the environment. The two most common methods for producing hydrogen are steam-methane reforming and electrolysis. Electrolysis is simply a clean process of splitting water with electricity to produce hydrogen to be used as fuel. Steam-methane reforming is the process of separating hydrogen atoms from carbon atoms in methane to be used as hydrogen fuel. Both processes release a small amount of CO2 which like fossil fuels is harmful to the environment (US Department of Energy, 2). But the release is so small that it causes very little effect on the environment, making it greatly better than burning fossil fuels. Even when the vehicles are ran, the only emissions produced by them are warm air and water. This makes these vehicles an ideal choice as they have zero harmful emissions. Compared to gasoline and hybrid vehicles, that burn fossil fuels and release very harmful gasses like nitrogen gasses and carbon. These gasses have a lasting effect on the environment considering they get trapped in earth’s atmosphere and stay there, building up over time. This is why the change to hydrogen fuel cell cars needs to occur in the future as the atmosphere is currently being more polluted. 

Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are the overall best type of vehicle for the future because of how efficient they are. In all aspects hydrogen fuel cell vehicles outperform the other types of vehicles ranging from normal gasoline automobiles to electric vehicles. After an interview with Mr. Bryan Maul it was very clear how hydrogen fuel cell vehicles could be used in all aspects, even the construction industry. After understanding how beneficial the vehicles could be even to people outside of just transportation, it is clear hydrogen fuel cell cars are the future. 

 

Work Cited

Hydrogen fuel cost vs gasoline. HES Hydrogen. (2021). Retrieved April 10, 2022, from                             https://heshydrogen.com/hydrogen-fuel-cost-vs-gasoline/ 

Demirdöven, N., & Deutch, J. (n.d.). Global Urban Environmental Change Drives science.org.  Hybrid Cars Now, Fuel Cell Cars Later. Retrieved April 11, 2022, from https://www.science.org/doi/epdf/10.1126/science.abk0989 

US Department of Energy. (2022, January 21). U.S. Energy Information Administration – EIA – independent statistics and analysis. Production of hydrogen – U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). Retrieved April 11, 2022, from https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/hydrogen/production-of-hydrogen.php 

 

HR: Source listed, Hunter Maul