Hydrogen Fuel Cell Cars: The Best Solution?

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Hydrogen Fuel Cell Cars The Best Solution?

• Tim Cahill and Ryan Saran

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• A Hydrogen car uses hydrogen as its on-board fuel
  for motive power.
• Hydrogen cars covert hydrogen energy to torque by
  two methods
• Combustion
• Electrochemical Conversion

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Combustion

• A series of exothermic reactions between fuel and
  an oxidant accompanied by heat and/or light.
• Hydrogen is burned by the engine.
• Very similar to the way that gasoline is used in
  traditional cars.

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Electrochemical Conversion

• Hydrogen reacts with oxygen to produce
  electricity and water.
• More common among Hydrogen car prototypes.

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Hydrogen

• Never found alone on Earth.
• Easily extracted when in a compound.
• Does not create energy, it carries it.
• Hydrogen produced from natural gas only has 50
  of the original energy.

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Benefits

• The benefits of switching to hydrogen vehicles
  clearly outweigh the disadvantages.
• Some advantages are
• Zero Emission Technology
• Mileage
• Foreign Oil

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Zero Emission Technology

• Conventional fossil-fuel burning vehicles produce
  all sorts of poisons such as
• Carbon Dioxide
• Carbon Monoxide
• Nitrous Oxide
• The only emission of a hydrogen fuel cell car
  is water.

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Foreign Oil

• Developing a economy of mass produced and
  effective hydrogen cars will reduce our
  dependency on foreign oil.
• Gas is clearly out of control and making this
  transition seems like the only way to get around
  at a reasonable price.

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Problems

• Although many advancements in hydrogen technology
  has occurred, there still are many problems such
  as
• Fuel Cell Cost
• Freezing Conditions
• Storage
• Hydrogen Infrastructure
• Competition

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Fuel Cell Cost

• Currently, fuel cells are costly and fragile
• We need to find a way to make inexpensive and
  tough fuel cells
• Many designs require rare substances like
  platinum as the catalyst.

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Fuel Cell Cost cont.

• The catalyst can be contaminated by impurities in
  the hydrogen supply
• A nickel-tin catalyst is the most popular
  alternative for this problem.

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Freezing Conditions

• Fuel cells produce water and utilize moist air,
  especially during startup.
• The current high for startup in freezing
  conditions is 50 power achieved in 30 seconds at
  -20 C.
• Goal 75 in 25 seconds at -15 C .

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Storage

• Hydrogen is considered a bulky gas.
• It is very difficult to store large amounts in
  the liquid state and even harder in the gas state.

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Hydrogen Infrastructure

• Must get rid of typical gasoline pump stations
  and make them hydrogen pumps.
• Hydrogen pump stations have already begun to be
  produced in many places around the world.

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Hydrogen infrastructure cont.

• In California, private and public initiatives
  have been taken to build a Hydrogen Highway
• This has already begun production and has a
  sufficient amount of pump stations to support the
  travel of the latest hydrogen car prototypes.

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• President Bush has already raised 2 billion in
  Hydrogen Highway research and production.

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Competition

• There is not clear way to see which types of
  green car will be primarily in the future.
• However, there is a strong possibility that all
  can be nearly perfect to the point where they are
  mass produced and sold to the public

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Competition cont.

• There are two leading solutions to the
  conventional gasoline car excluding the hydrogen
  car.
• These the ICE Hybrid vehicle and the Electric
  vehicle.

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ICE/PHEV Hybrid Vehicle

• ICE Internal Combustion Engine
• PHEV Plug-in hybrid Electric Vehicle
• Can be plugged into a electric grid and achieve
  higher gas mileage and lower emissions that other
  hybrids.

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ICE/PHEV Hybrid Vehicle cont.

• In a 2006 article in Scientific American, argues
  that these vehicles will be standard in the
  automobile industry, rather than Hydrogen Fuel
  Cell Cars.
• Have huge disadvantages in their cost, weight,
  and size of battery.

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ICE/PHEV Hybrid Vehicle cont.
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Electric Cars

• Commonly referred to as a EV, which means
  Electric Vehicle.
• Typically more fuel efficient that fuel cell cars
  on a wheel-to-wheel basis.
• This is the main reason that these cars are
  gaining popularity.

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Electric Cars cont.
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• Hydrogen cars are without a doubt the future.
• This is our problem to deal with and solve.
• A hydrogen economy is just around the bend. Will
  we be ready?