Hydrogen vehicle

Fuel cell cost

Hydrogen fuel cells are relatively expensive to produce, as their designs require rare substances such as platinum as a catalyst.^[56] The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) estimated in 2002 that the cost of a fuel cell for an automobile (assuming high-volume manufacturing) was approximately $275/kW, which translated into each vehicle costing an estimated 100,000 dollars.^[57] However, by 2010, DOE estimated the cost had fallen 80% and that automobile fuel cells might be manufactured for $51/kW, assuming high-volume manufacturing cost savings.^[58]
The projected cost, assuming a manufacturing volume of 500,000 units/year, using 2012 technology, was estimated by the DOE to be $47/kW for an 80 kW PEM fuel cell. Assuming a manufacturing volume of 10,000 units/year, however, the cost was projected to be $84/kW using 2012 technology.^[59] The Department of Energy wrote: "Hydrogen fuel cells for cars have never been manufactured at large scale, in part because of the prohibitive price tag. But the DOE estimates that the cost of producing fuel cells is falling fast".^[60]
In 2014, Toyota said it would sell its Toyota Mirai in Japan for less than $70,000 by April 2015^[11] and that it has brought the cost of the fuel cell system down to 5 percent of the fuel cell prototypes of the last decade.^[61] Former European Parliament President Pat Cox estimates that Toyota will initially lose about $100,000 on each Mirai sold.^[12]

***( Here they are not taking into account the cost of mass production of good available Hydrogen or the explosion danger of the shipment and storage)

 Freezing conditions

The problems in early fuel cell designs at low temperatures concerning range and cold start capabilities have been addressed so that they "cannot be seen as show-stoppers anymore".^[62] Users in 2014 said that their fuel cell vehicles perform flawlessly in temperatures below zero, even with the heaters blasting, without significantly reducing range.^[63]

Service life

The service life of fuel cells is comparable to that of other vehicles.^[64] PEM service life is 7,300 hours under cycling conditions.^[65]

Hydrogen

Hydrogen does not come as a pre-existing source of energy like fossil fuels, but is first produced and then stored as a carrier, much like a battery. A suggested benefit of large-scale deployment of hydrogen vehicles is that it could lead to decreased emissions of greenhouse gases and ozone precursors.^[66] However, as of 2014, 95% of hydrogen is made from methane. It can be produced using renewable sources, but that is an expensive process.^[3][67] Integrated wind-to-hydrogen (power to gas) plants, using electrolysis of water, are exploring technologies to deliver costs low enough, and quantities great enough, to compete with traditional energy sources.^[68]
According to Ford Motor Company, "when FCVs are run on hydrogen reformed from natural gas using this process, they do not provide significant environmental benefits on a well-to-wheels basis (due to GHG emissions from the natural gas reformation process)."^[69] While methods of hydrogen production that do not use fossil fuel would be more sustainable,^[70] currently renewable energy represents only a small percentage of energy generated, and power produced from renewable sources can be used in electric vehicles and for non-vehicle applications.^[71]
The challenges facing the use of hydrogen in vehicles include production, storage, transport and distribution. The well-to-wheel efficiency for hydrogen is less than 25%.^{[7][72][73][74]} A study sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy said in 2004 that the well-to-wheel efficiency of gasoline or diesel powered vehicles is even less.^[75]

Production

The molecular hydrogen needed as an on-board fuel for hydrogen vehicles can be obtained through many thermochemical methods utilizing natural gas, coal (by a process known as coal gasification), liquefied petroleum gas, biomass (biomass gasification), by a process called thermolysis, or as a microbial waste product called biohydrogen or Biological hydrogen production. 95% of hydrogen is produced using natural gas,^[76] and 85% of hydrogen produced is used to remove sulfur from gasoline. Hydrogen can also be produced from water by electrolysis or by chemical reduction using chemical hydrides or aluminum.^[77] Current technologies for manufacturing hydrogen use energy in various forms, totaling between 25 and 50 percent of the higher heating value of the hydrogen fuel, used to produce, compress or liquefy, and transmit the hydrogen by pipeline or truck.^[78]

Environmental consequences of the production of hydrogen from fossil energy resources include the emission of greenhouse gases, a consequence that would also result from the on-board reforming of methanol into hydrogen.^[72] Analyses comparing the environmental consequences of hydrogen production and use in fuel-cell vehicles to the refining of petroleum and combustion in conventional automobile engines do not agree on whether a net reduction of ozone and greenhouse gases would result.^[7][66]

Hydrogen production using renewable energy resources would not create such emissions or, in the case of biomass, would create near-zero net emissions assuming new biomass is grown in place of that converted to hydrogen. However the same land could be used to create Biodiesel, usable with (at most) minor alterations to existing well developed and relatively efficient diesel engines. In either case, the scale of renewable energy production today is small and would need to be greatly expanded to be used in producing hydrogen for a significant part of transportation needs.^[79] As of December 2008, less than 3 percent of U.S. electricity was produced from renewable sources, not including dams.^[80] In a few countries, renewable sources are being used more widely to produce energy and hydrogen. For example, Iceland is using geothermal power to produce hydrogen,^[81] and Denmark is using wind.^[82]

Storage

Hydrogen has a very low volumetric energy density at ambient conditions, equal to about one-third that of methane. Even when the fuel is stored as liquid hydrogen in a cryogenic tank or in a compressed hydrogen storage tank, the volumetric energy density (megajoules per liter) is small relative to that of gasoline.^{[56][18][19][20]} Hydrogen has a three times higher specific energy by mass compared to gasoline (143 MJ/kg versus 46.9 MJ/kg). Some research has been done into using special crystalline materials to store hydrogen at greater densities and at lower pressures. A recent study by Dutch researcher Robin Gremaud has shown that metal hydride hydrogen tanks are actually 40 to 60-percent lighter than an equivalent energy battery pack on an electric vehicle permitting greater range for H2 cars.^[83] In 2011, scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory and University of Alabama, working with the U.S. Department of Energy, found a new single-stage method for recharging ammonia borane, a hydrogen storage compound.^[84][85]  

Hydrogen storage is a key area for the advancement of hydrogen and fuel cell power. An article discussing the issue of storage states, “Alternatives to large storage tanks may be found in hydrides, materials that can absorb, store, and release large quantities of hydrogen gas. More work and development needs to be performed with hydrides before they are of practical use”. Some other options available for hydrogen fuel cells storage include: High pressure tanks and cryogenic tanks. Both of which strive to improve volumetric capacity, conformability, and cost of storage. The DOE’s efforts on this matter have focused on on-board vehicular hydrogen storage systems that will allow for a driving range of 300+ miles while meeting all requirements in order to stay competitive with current means of transportation.^[86][87]

Infrastructure

The hydrogen infrastructure consists mainly of industrial hydrogen pipeline transport and hydrogen-equipped filling stations like those found on a hydrogen highway. Hydrogen stations which are not situated near a hydrogen pipeline can obtain supply via hydrogen tanks, compressed hydrogen tube trailers, liquid hydrogen tank trucks or dedicated onsite production.

Hydrogen use would require the alteration of industry and transport on a scale never seen before in history. For example, according to GM, 70% of the U.S. population lives near a hydrogen-generating facility but has little access to hydrogen, despite its wide availability for commercial use.^[88] The distribution of hydrogen fuel for vehicles throughout the U.S. would require new hydrogen stations that would cost, by some estimates approximately 20 billion dollars^[89] and 4.6 billion in the EU.^[90] Other estimates place the cost as high as half trillion dollars in the United States alone.^[7][91]

The California Hydrogen Highway is an initiative to build a series of hydrogen refueling stations along California state highways. As of 2013, 10 publicly accessible hydrogen filling stations were in operation in the U.S., eight of which were in Southern California, one in the San Francisco bay area, and one in South Carolina.^[5]

Codes and standards

Hydrogen codes and standards, as well as codes and technical standards for hydrogen safety and the storage of hydrogen, have been identified as an institutional barrier to deploying hydrogen technologies and developing a hydrogen economy.

 To enable the commercialization of hydrogen in consumer products, new codes and standards must be developed and adopted by federal, state and local governments.^[92]  

A hydrogen vehicle is a vehicle that uses hydrogen as its on board fuel for motive power. 

Can we (you) afford a fully Hydrogen power vehicle?? 

Not really - cost and obtaining the fuel is high; plus Hydrogen is very explosive.
{Just remember the Hindenburg Disaster-


Hydrogen vehicles include hydrogen fueled space rockets, as well as automobiles and other transportation vehicles. 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; rather it is an energy carrier. As of 2014, 95% of hydrogen is made from methane. It can be produced using renewable sources, but that is an expensive process.

  Integrated wind-to-hydrogen (power to gas) plants, using electrolysis of water, are exploring technologies to deliver costs low enough, and quantities great enough, to compete with traditional energy sources. 
{Water is one of the world's most critical elements supporting life for both for plant and animal.}

Many companies are working to develop technologies that might efficiently exploit the potential of hydrogen energy for use in motor vehicles. As of November 2013 there are demonstration fleets of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles undergoing field testing including the Chevrolet Equinox Fuel Cell, Honda FCX Clarity, Hyundai ix35 FCEV and Mercedes-Benz B-Class F-Cell.

The drawbacks of hydrogen use are high carbon emissions intensity when produced from natural gas, capital cost burden, low energy content per unit volume, low performance of fuel cell vehicles compared with gasoline vehicles, production and compression of hydrogen, and the large investment in infrastructure that would be required to fuel vehicles.   

<sup>This is where we separate fact from profit - fiction... 


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**  Why automotive fuel cells have no future

A lot of big companies, including automakers such as Ford, GM, and Toyota (NYSE:TM), have spent billions researching fuel-cell cars, with Ford, Daimler, and Nissan announcing a partnership to develop a "common fuel cell system" they could bring to market by 2017.

Toyota recently doubled-down on fuel cells with its North American CEO, Jim Lentz, stating that the company was focusing on hybrids in the short term and fuel cells in the long term (as opposed to EVs). The company recently unveiled a 300-mile range fuel cell concept car that it claims might be available for a starting price "in the neighborhood" of $50,000 in 2015, putting it in direct competition with Tesla's Model S.

Despite support from these major corporations there are two very fundamental reasons why hydrogen fuel cells will lose to battery electric as the technology of tomorrow.

The cost of building a hydrogen infrastructure to replace petroleum and natural gas would be an estimated $200 trillion. Compare this to the cost of a smart electric grid, $338 billion to $476 billion, which would impart $1.4 trillion to $2 trillion in economic benefits.

Updating our aging electrical grid is something that America will need to do anyway to keep our lights on and economy running. In the process we can help expand the existing infrastructure to accommodate electric cars which cost $0.75/gallon equivalent to fuel, as opposed to $4.5/gallon equivalent of hydrogen, which the department of energy believes may drop as low as $3.75/gallon equivalent by 2020.

This brings me to the second fundamental  problem with fuel cells -- the fuel. Hydrogen is not an energy source but a store of energy, much like a battery. Today 96% of hydrogen is made from natural gas, in a process that is 72% efficient. Hydrogen can be made from water in a process called electrolysis -- which is 70% efficient. However, because it is the smallest, lightest, and least dense element hydrogen must be compressed to be stored. When one considers the energy losses of creating hydrogen (say from wind or solar powered electrolysis) then compressed into a vehicle's fuel tank, it will never be as efficient, nor as cheap, as taking that electricity and putting it straight into a battery.

The bottom line is that EVs, such as Tesla's Model S, will always have the upper hand over fuel cells due to higher efficiency and lower fueling costs. Throw in the lack of hydrogen infrastructure and more expensive price tag to build said infrastructure and it becomes clear that hydrogen fuel cells have a very limited future, if any.

Foolish takeaway Plug Power's recent stock price rise and fall are examples of pure speculation, and long-term investors should steer clear of the company, if for no other reason than hydrogen fuel cells are simply inferior to battery electric technology on an efficiency and fuel cost basis. Tesla motors, though also highly speculative, is a far better investment, representing superior technology, exceptional management, and incredible optionality opportunities.


Adam Galas has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Tesla Motors. The Motley Fool owns shares of Tesla Motors. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days.


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