Published on Sep 03, 2023
A hydrogen vehicle is an alternative fuel vehicle that uses hydrogen as its onboard fuel for motive power. The term may refer to a personal transportation vehicle, such as an automobile, or any other vehicle that uses hydrogen in a similar fashion, such as an aircraft. The power plants of such vehicles convert the chemical energy of hydrogen to mechanical energy either by burning hydrogen in an internal combustion engine, or by reacting hydrogen with oxygen in a fuel cell to run electric motors. Widespread use of hydrogen for fueling transportation is a key element of a proposed hydrogen economy.
Hydrogen fuel does not occur naturally on Earth and thus is not an energy source, but is an energy carrier. Currently it is most frequently made from methane or other fossil fuels. However, it can be produced from a wide range of sources (such as wind, solar, or nuclear) that are intermittent, too diffuse or too cumbersome to directly propel vehicles. Integrated wind-to-hydrogen plants, using electrolysis of water, are exploring technologies to deliver costs low enough, and quantities great enough, to compete with traditional energy sources.
Many companies are working to develop technologies that might efficiently exploit the potential of hydrogen energy for mobile uses. The attraction of using hydrogen as an energy currency is that, if hydrogen is prepared without using fossil fuel inputs, vehicle propulsion would not contribute to carbon dioxide emissions.
The drawbacks of hydrogen use are low energy content per unit volume, high tank age weights, the storage, transportation and filling of gaseous or liquid hydrogen in vehicles, the large investment in infrastructure that would be required to fuel vehicles, and the inefficiency of production processes.
Buses, trains, PHB bicycles, canal boats, cargo bikes, golf carts, motorcycles, wheelchairs, ships, airplanes, submarines, and rockets can already run on hydrogen, in various forms. NASA uses hydrogen to launch Space Shuttles into space. There is even a working toy model car that runs on solar power, using a regenerative fuel cell to store energy in the form of hydrogen and oxygen gas. It can then convert the fuel back into water to release the solar energy.
The current land speed record for a hydrogen-powered vehicle is 286.476 mph (461.038 km/h) set by Ohio State University's Buckeye Bullet 2, which achieved a "flying-mile" speed of 280.007 mph (450.628 km/h) at the Bonneville Salt Flats in August 2008. For production-style vehicles, the current record for a hydrogen-powered vehicle is 333.38 km/h (207.2 mph) set by a prototype Ford Fusion Hydrogen 999 Fuel Cell Race Car at Bonneville Salt Flats in Wend over, Utah in August 2007. It was accompanied by a large compressed oxygen tank to increase power. Honda has also created a concept called the FC Sport, which may be able to beat that record if put into production.
The hydrogen gas is produced by mixing the KOH and water with the help of cathode and anode terminals. This is called Fuel cell arrangement. A fuel cell is an electrochemical cell that converts a source fuel into an electrical current. It generates electricity inside a cell through reactions between a fuel and an oxidant, triggered in the presence of an electrolyte. The reactants flow into the cell, and the reaction products flow out of it, while the electrolyte remains within it. Fuel cells can operate continuously as long as the necessary reactant and oxidant flows are maintained.
Fuel cells are different from conventional electrochemical cell batteries in that they consume reactant from an external source, which must be replenished – a thermodynamically open system. By contrast, batteries store electrical energy chemically and hence represent a thermodynamically closed system. The permanent magnet D.C generator is coupled to the engine sprocket so that the power will be stored in a lead acid battery.
• Hydrogen cars are beneficial for the environment in a number of ways. For example, they do not emit greenhouse gases that are harmful for the welfare of the ecosystem. These cars are much more fuel efficient than gasoline vehicles, and let out less pollution overall. However, there are many drawbacks to using hydrogen-powered vehicles, though scientists are working to eliminate these downsides.
• The main objective of using hydrogen cars is to save the environment from the negative impacts of burning fossil fuels. According to greenliving.com, hydrogen fuel is better because it does not release carbon dioxide into the air. Hydrogen cars also give more mileage as compared to gasoline-powered vehicles; for example, a car using hydrogen fuel can go up to twice the mileage as a gasoline car on the same amount of fuel.
• Another advantage of hydrogen cars is the engine's strength and durability. Many other types of engines cannot work properly in high temperatures, and tend to overheat. Hydrogen engines, however, can work in extremely high temperatures, plus the engines do not corrode as easily as their gasoline counterparts.
• There is a disadvantage around the cost of hydrogen fuel: the initial expenditure to convert the infrastructure from gasoline to hydrogen is huge. It would cost billions of dollars to replace all of the current gas stations with hydrogen fueling stations.
• Another disadvantage of hydrogen fuel cars is the difficulty of obtaining liquid hydrogen to use as a fuel. Hydrogen is not readily gotten from air, so it must be obtained from water molecules. There are several ways for hydrogen to be extracted from water, but none are efficient and all are very expensive.
• Hydrogen storage is another problem. It takes enormous amounts of space to store liquid hydrogen. Research is in process on how to more effectively store hydrogen in vehicles, but the solution is yet to be found. According to greenliving.com, several companies have invested billions of dollars in the development of efficient hydrogen fuel cells which will carry more hydrogen fuel in a vehicle.
1. Two wheeler Application
2. Four wheeler Applications
