I have basic idea of working of hydrogen fuel cell but why just hydrogen? Isn’t there any better or maybe cheaper alternative?
(I know it’s bit complex for but I would appreciate your answers)
In: 346
There basically aren’t other options. If you want to cram potential energy into a molecule for storage, and then react that molecule with oxygen in order to release that potential energy on-demand, you’re pretty limited in terms of the kinds of chemical reactions available. Oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, and nitrogen are essentially the only ingredients we know how to bake the cake with, there’s no indication we’re going to discover some magical new element that’ll fill the gap, and (in all honesty) we have quite a few clues from chemistry that there absolutely *isn’t* any other undiscovered element that’ll work for this particular job.
So your options are, essentially, either pure hydrogen, hydrocarbon fuels, or ammonia. Two of those things broadly don’t occur naturally, so you have to make it from other compounds (which costs money). The third (hydrocarbons) absolutely exists naturally (hence why we use it), but presents a problem with respect to introducing carbon to the atmosphere.
Latest Answers