The forgotten fuel of the future

Upsides

In a time that electric vehicles are becoming more popular, what happened to the hydrogen powered vehicles? Is hydrogen power a thing of the past? No! It’s actually being used in many different places around the world.

One place that hydrogen is winning against electricity is in heavy-duty transportation. Ships, trains, trucks, and airplanes use them instead of electricity, because it saves weight, by not having heavy battery packs, and is a lot faster at refueling. About 3-5 minutes compared to hours with electricity!

Another use that batteries struggle at, but hydrogen excels is long term storage. By turning excess renewable electricity into “green hydrogen” via electrolysis, which is a process that uses electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. Which then can be stored for weeks to months, then reconverted into electricity or used directly as fuel.

Downsides

There are some downsides to hydrogen. It’s hard to find refueling stations outside of California, Japan, and certain places in Europe, because to build just one hydrogen refueling station, it costs 1-2 million dollars!

Most hydrogen powered vehicles like the Toyota Mirai or Hyundai Nexo are expensive because complex fuel systems, limited production, and high cost of hydrogen storage tanks, made from carbon fiber composites.

Hydrogen is not inherently more dangerous than gasoline, but it does have a very wide flammable range, meaning it can ignite under a broader range of conditions. However, engineering and safety protocols have made hydrogen vehicles just as safe as gasoline cars.

I used to think that hydrogen should be the future of fuel, but maybe it’s only meant to be used in small areas of our huge fuel industry.