I’ve been looking into renewable energy and other options relative to nuclear (not a big fan because of the waste), solar, wind, and thermal. Hydrogen fuel cell technology has popped up a bit and I’m wondering how this works. With my basic understanding, hydrogen is used as input and water (two hydrogens and an oxygen) are the output.
How does this reaction happen?
Is it not widespread because it’s energy intensive? If not, why haven’t more industries adopted this technology?
If so, why is so energy intensive and how much energy does it produce?
What’s holding us back from going balls deep into hydrogen fuel cell technology when the by products are clean (even usable) and the input is so abundant in the universe and on earth?
With the abundance of input material, It seems like this technology could be useful once we get to Mars as well.
Disclaimer: This isn’t for a class or anything. I’m a 31 year old bioinformatician just looking into a new interesting topic and wanted some context from someone with more knowledge.
In: Technology
The reaction is facilitated by the “fuel cell,” a device where hydrogen goes in one side and oxygen the other, and has some special properties in its layers to produce electricity and allow hydrogen to combine with the oxygen to form water.
Getting pure hydrogen is energy-intensive, and without methods to also collect and use the waste heat from the cell they achieve efficiencies of 40-50%. While that’s a good figure, considering the amount of energy to produce the fuel, only getting use out of half of it is an even bigger kick in the rear. Collection of waste heat and finding ways to use it though can boost efficiency up to 85%!
Then there’s materials issues. The cell includes things like platinum powder (expensive), and also relies on some other materials that aren’t so exotic but will need machined to fit properly. Not a big issue, we already do lots of machining on standard engine blocks, but it requires setting up extra production equipment compared to an electric vehicle which could technically take advantage of production processes already in place.
Then finally there’s logistics. We have to build a whole network for transporting hydrogen and build fueling stations for it (according to Wikipedia, at a cost of $1-4 million each). Contrast that with electric. We already have infrastructure for electric pretty much everywhere, and it’s as simple as plugging in some Superchargers and maybe getting the distribution box upgraded to handle the extra load. No need to arrange more deliveries, no need to bury more big tanks in the ground.
Hydrogen does show promise and may become more prominent in the future, but electric has the advantage of already having 95% of what’s needed already in place, from distribution to plenty of people already making lithium cells and electric motors.
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