is hydrogen fuel cell the future?

this episode of science scout takes it to the next level today we'll be discussing another interesting topic which revolves around hydrogen cars and fuel cell technology have you ever heard about tesla or elon musk tesla is an electric car company owned by elon musk the car company came into the limelight in late 2019 when its stock value suddenly skyrocketed it made one thing clear electric cars are going to share future car market with some dominance almost all car manufacturing companies are producing electric units in their dedicated production plants tesla being the forerunner with a big lead what lies in the future we have two main questions do electric cars have a bright future definitely yes is there any threat to the popularity of electric cars in the future definitely yes one of the first hydrogen cars sold as the 2015 toyota mirage since then there has been an addition of more than 8 000 cars in the united states till the end of 2019. on the other hand battery electric vehicles sold in the united states were about 245 000 in 2019 with tesla models accounting for almost 80 percent of it while some 330 000 plug-in electric cars were also sold in the states last year so how does a hydrogen engine work powered with electric motors hydrogen fuel cell cars are also known as e-cars the common abbreviation is fcev short for fuel cell electric vehicle in contrast to a bev or battery electric vehicle one main difference between electric cars and hydrogen cars is the source of electricity while electric cars run on batteries charged electrically hydrogen cars produce their own electricity as they have their little power plant on board this power plant is the fuel cell first comes air the fcevs front intake grills deliver the outside air to the fuel cell system which makes electricity hydrogen travels from the tanks to the fuel cell system in the fuel cell system hydrogen and oxygen from the air combine in a chemical reaction that creates electricity to power the vehicle moving you forward when you put your foot on the accelerator electricity from the fuel cell system is sent to the motor leaving nothing but water in the end the only byproduct of creating electricity with hydrogen and oxygen in our fuel cell system is water which leaves through a hatch located on the bottom of the mirai what is a hydrogen fuel cell a fuel cell is an electrochemical cell that converts chemical energy of a fuel into electricity by hosting some reactions in the fuel cell of an fcev or fuel cell electric vehicle electrical energy is produced with the reaction of hydrogen and oxygen with the help of electrolysis to separate water into hydrogen and oxygen the electrolyzer consists of two metal coated electrodes and a dc power source which provides a negative and positive charge hydrogen will appear at the cathode the negative electrode where electrons react with the water to form hydrogen and hydroxide ions these negative ions now present in the water are attracted to the anode or positive electrode where the electrons react with the water to form hydrogen and hydroxide ions these negative ions now present in the water are attracted to the anode or positive electrode where they are oxidized to form oxygen and water the rate of production of oxygen and hydrogen depends on the electric current but pure water is not very conductive to achieve adequate hydrogen production we would need to increase the voltage or increase the conductivity it's much more efficient to increase conductivity so an electrolyte in the form of salt is often included as a charge carrier let's take a closer look at how fuel cells work the fuel cell stack is composed of several hundred cells there are several types of fuel cells which include alkali multicarbonate phosphoric acid proton exchange membrane and solid oxide fuel cells they each operate a bit differently but all consists of two electrodes a negative electrode also called the anode and a positive electrode also called the cathode in order to obtain energy for the vehicle we need to rejoin the hydrogen with oxygen and this is done most efficiently in what is called a fuel cell in an ordinary electric cell a metal say zinc ionizes at one electrode the anode giving off two electrons the electrons are pushed around the circuit carrying energy for example a motor and absorbed by metal ions of a less reactive metal say copper the circuit is completed by the movement of metal ions through the solution in a fuel cell the reactants are gases instead of metals hydrogen then gives its electrons which flow around driving the motor and arrive at the cathode where they are recombined with hydrogen in the presence of the reactive gas oxygen this provides the driving energy to form water again the electrodes can be made of porous carbon coated with a catalyst such as platinum or nickel the advantage of combining fuel and oxygen in a cell is that you can't in theory convert most of the chemical energy to electricity whereas burning them as it happens in the internal combustion engine of a car has a maximum efficiency of about 50 percent in practice only about 25 percent of the chemical energy does the useful work in driving the engine the rest comes out as waste heat how is this electrical energy utilized electrical energy produced during the electrolysis process goes to either electric motor to power the fcev directly or to traction batteries for charging purposes depending on the driving situation at a specific time while water leaves the system as water vapor traction batteries are smaller and lighter than the batteries used in electric cars like other e-cars hydrogen vehicles can also recover or recuperate braking energy the electric motor converts the car's kinetic energy back into electrical energy and feeds it into the backup battery let's look at some of the advantages and disadvantages of hydrogen powered cars for users the pros and cons of a particular propulsion technology can be seen from two main perspectives that of the user and that of the environment first hydrogen as an energy source is very promising for example hydrogen in itself is an energy storage medium storing energy in the form of gas or liquid this stored energy will never dissipate until it is used this is unlike batteries and capacitors which can lose their stored energy over time even without use though hydrogen molecules usually require a lot of resources to annex however the fact remains that it's a renewable energy source that is bountifully and infinitely available also unlike fossil fuel combustion engines the byproduct of the combustion of hydrogen in fuel cells include energy water and heat no greenhouse gases produced making hydrogen clean non-toxic and safe for all components of our planet besides hydrogen energy is three times more potent than gasoline and other fossil based sources of fuel this means that you need less hydrogen to complete an enormous task this is why hydrogen is commonly used as fuel for spaceships a vehicle that utilizes hydrogen energy will travel more miles for almost 300 miles with full hydrogen tanks than one that uses electric battery also vehicles that use hydrogen take between three to four minutes to refill while those that use battery take between 30 minutes to 12 hours to refill that's a lot of time to spare moreover hydrogen cars have pure electrical propulsion resulting in virtually no engine noise at all despite all these advantages hydrogen energy has its disadvantages the biggest disadvantage of this technology is the non-availability of refueling stations special fuel pumps for these cars are as low as 41 in the united states compared to 80 in germany low numbers of on-road hydrogen vehicles don't encourage operators to establish special refuel pumps the irony is the few fueling stations are a major reason for less hydrogen cars on roads chicken and egg problem right bmw's homeland of germany leads the way in terms of finding a solution they have joined a program with hydrogen producers and operators to expand the hydrogen fueling station network to 130 stations in the next three years fueling up sixty thousand cars in germany the next target is to establish four hundred stations by twenty twenty five now let's talk about the cost the other reason we see less hydrogen cars on the road is the price for example in terms of range and distance fcv tends to perform better than bev the more expensive mass-produced electric cars that tend to offer battery ranges of about 300 miles is the tesla model 3 long range that has a range of 322 miles with a price tag of 40 000 on the other hand the hydrogen-powered hyundai nexo comes with a real-world range of 414 miles with a price tag of 59 000 so in terms of range alone hydrogen vehicles have the upper hand in addition to less industrialized production these cars are expensive because platinum is used as a catalyst during the power generation as the metal is expensive manufacturers are trying to reduce its need to reduce the total cost of a hydrogen car the cost will be the same to that of the electric cars once the desired platinum reduction is observed in manufacturing the other problem with the hydrogen cars is their size hydrogen tanks take a lot of space hence increasing the unit's size the reason electric cars are smaller in size is that they don't need such a dedicated arrangement operating costs is yet another reason in slow mass adoption of these cars on average hydrogen fuel prices 13.9 dollars per kilogram while gasoline prices are around 2.44 cents per gallon hydrogen cars use an average of 0.8 kilograms of hydrogen per 100 kilometers while petrol cars use around 1.5 gallons of petrol per 100 kilometers so if you spend seventy dollars to get five kilograms of hydrogen and forty dollars to get sixteen gallons of petrol a hydrogen car will only travel a distance of six hundred twenty five kilometers while a petrol powered vehicle can go as far as 1090 kilometers that's a huge difference however nrel estimates that hydrogen fuel prices may fall to the ten dollar to eight dollar per kilogram range in the 2020 to 2025 period but the question is which energy has the best efficiency and is the most cost effective for driving e-cars battery or hydrogen operation with battery-powered e-cars only eight percent of the energy is lost during transport before the electricity is stored in the batteries of the vehicle when the electrical energy used to drive the electric motor is converted another 18 is lost this gives the battery-operated electric car an efficiency level of between 70 to 80 percent depending on the model with the hydrogen-powered electric car the losses are significantly greater 45 percent of the energy is already lost during the production of hydrogen through electrolysis of this remaining 55 percent of the original energy another 55 percent is lost when hydrogen is converted into electricity in the vehicle this means that the hydrogen-powered electric car only achieves an efficiency of between 25 to 35 percent depending on the model for the sake of completeness when alternative fuels are burned the efficiency is even worse only 10 to 20 percent overall efficiency one of the major concerns is whether fuel cell technology is environmentally friendly an ideal car would be using renewable energy with no harmful emissions at all is hydrogen car an ideal car let's have a look its propulsion system is designed to reduce the emission of harmful substances like co2 and other oxides exhaust of a hydrogen car has just water vapors in it making it suitable for air is it good for the climate too an important factor regarding fcv's impact on environment is how hydrogen is being produced there are at least two ways to produce hydrogen if fossil fuels are used to produce hydrogen carbon emissions are going to affect the climate just like electric cars if hydrogen is being produced with the help of electrolysis the climate is not being polluted in terms of greenhouse emissions when we consider the whole production processes of the hydrogen and electric cars there's actually a lot of greenhouse gas emissions for example to produce a 100 kilowatt hour lithium ion battery for an electric vehicle it will take around 20 tons of carbon dioxide and a typical battery lasts for 150 000 miles so that equates to about 83 grams per kilometer of carbon dioxide then when you consider charging over that same distance the same battery car will deliver 124 grams per kilometer of carbon dioxide over its lifetime by comparison a study found that a toyota mirai hydrogen fuel cell car produces around 120 grams per kilometer of carbon dioxide over its lifetime when all its current manufacturing processes are taken into account however if hydrogen can be produced by renewable energy the amount of carbon dioxide released could be reduced significantly let's delve a bit more into safety requirements global technical regulation number 13 is an agreement between japan europe and north america that sets the safety requirements that all high pressure hydrogen systems must adhere to compliance with this regulation is tough and requires hydrogen tanks to be dropped frozen damaged exposed to chemicals hydraulically and pneumatically cycled stuck on a bonfire and ultimately burst to ensure tank performance throughout the lifetime of the vehicle therefore engineers have worked to ensure that hydrogen tanks are designed not to leak the new multi-patented carbon fiber wrapped polymer lined tanks are built in a three-layer structure and absorbed five times the crash energy of steel in a high-speed collision sensors stop the flow of hydrogen to prevent hydrogen from traveling to potentially damaged systems outside of the tank the system is designed to automatically shut off the tank's hydrogen output valve any leaked hydrogen is quickly dispersed all hydrogen related parts are located outside the cabin and are designed to help prevent leaked hydrogen from building up toyota even tested their carbon fiber tank by shooting it with a 50 caliber round the tank didn't explode it simply released hydrogen safely into the atmosphere since hydrogen is lighter than air it rapidly disperses reducing the time to cause damage in the event of an ignition hydrogen is arguably safer than gasoline so safety isn't a huge concern for hydrogen now my next question how much does hydrogen production cost as i've said before price is a huge factor in the production of hydrogen for example hydrogen production cost from natural gas via steam reforming of methane is 1.25 us dollars per kilogram for larger scales to 3.50 us dollars per kilogram for smaller setups if the natural gas price remains at 0.3 us dollars per kilogram if hydrogen is produced through electrolysis a 100 percent efficient electrolyzer will require 39 kilowatt hours of electricity to produce one kilogram of hydrogen however the devices available today require as much as 48 kilowatt hours per kilogram of hydrogen in the usa the average industrial electricity cost is approximately 0.06 us dollars per kilowatt hour assuming they even enjoyed an electricity cost of 0.05 us dollars per kilowatt hour the power cost for the electrolysis process alone will be 2.40 us dollars per kilogram of hydrogen however one advantage of electrolysis is that it is capable of producing more than 99.999 pure hydrogen which is good for fcvs how well distributed are fcvs as of present well if you live in california there's a chance you might have come across one fcv before there are nearly 8 363 of them currently on california roads the low carbon fuel standards lcfs hydrogen refueling infrastructure hri credit provisions took effect predicated on the goal of reaching 200 hydrogen stations by 2025. the four california stations are the first of a series of stations intended by iwatani for deployment in the western part of the united states current auto manufacturer provided projections for the road fcevs are 26 900 and 2022 and 48 000 and 2025. today's network of 41 open hydrogen fueling stations has established the early fueling market that enabled the launch of the fcev consumer market in california of the 24 funded stations currently under construction 11 are projected to open later this year so that ends this topic i hope you have been able to gain something new today about hydrogen cars and fuel cell technology are you interested in learning about how tidal energy can solve our energy problem watch the next video so if you like this video please don't forget to leave a like to support the channel so that we can continue to bring you more great content and speaking of great content why not turn that red subscribe button gray and ring that notification bell that way you will be notified every time we bring out a new video thanks for watching and never stop learning

Channel: Science Scout

Views: 140,402

Keywords: hydrogen fuel cell, how does hydrogen fuel cell work, hydrogen fuel engine, hydrogen fuel efficiency, hydrogen fuel future, hydrogen fuel gas, latest hydrogen fuel cell technology, hydrogen fuel cell cars vs electric car, hydrogen fuel cell cars 2020, hydrogen fuel cell cars how it works, hydrogen fuel cell cars future, hydrogen fuel cell cars in usa, cost of hydrogen fuel cell cars, fuel cell, hydrogen, Hydrogen fuel cell vs electric cars, is hydrogen fuel cell the future?

Id: ynSex9p2g4E

Length: 18min 59sec (1139 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 27 2020