Recent news has highlighted the opening of the first commercial hydrogen fueling station in California. For people who lease hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (the most common user) or some kind of hydrogen combusion engine, they now have one public place in the state of California where they can refuel their vehicles. A few others already exist in New England and Washington, D.C. Is this the start of a new age in the technology of fuel consumption and the beginning of the end of fossil fuels? And, where does this hydrogen come from anyways? Let's explore some of those questions in this article. What is Hydrogen and Where Does It Come From ?
Hydrogen is a very light gas at normal temperatures and pressures on Earth and does not occur naturally in any large quantities. It breaks down in the atmosphere or rises to the very edge of space where it is blown away by solar wind. When burned in air or with pure oxygen it produces only water vapor.
But, in terms of the fuel and energy infrastructure, hydrogen is nothing more than a substance for portable energy storage. It fills exactly the same role as a battery when combined with a device that can turn the hydrogen into power. When people speak of hydrogen powered automobiles, they are really saying "electric cars". From an overall energy system point of view there is no difference. Hydrogen has to be produced by another form of energy just like a battery has to be recharged with electricity from the grid.
Today most hydrogen comes from a chemical process involving natural gas, a fossil fuel, with some produced by the electrical breakdown of water into hydrogen and oxygen. Of course, the electrical power to breakdown the water could be supplied by anything from coal to wind. [ad name="Adsense Small Horz Banner"] So, Do We Need Hydrogen Cars
The benefits of hydrogen automobiles are the same as the benefits of electric cars--reduced pollution and less reliance on any single source or type of energy. Large power plants prove more cost effective for pollution control than thousands of automobiles, and power plants have already been designed to turn a wide variety of energy sources into electricity. That electricity can be used to create hydrogen or charge batteries.
The difference is that recently hydrogen fuel cell systems for cars have proven a little easier to engineer for long ranges than battery systems. In time, it is likely that the difference will even out. Both batteries and hydrogen tanks have safety risks, but they are being addressed and in the end will be no worse than the risk of carrying 12 or more gallons of gasoline around with us.
The cost effectiveness of hydrogen service stations has yet to be demonstrated, but will likely not cost much more than the equivalent amount of energy in electricity given a large enough distribution network. Unlike gasoline and diesel, hydrogen would mostly be produced on site at the service station as opposed to being trucked around cutting out a major portion of the current fuel delivery infrastructure.
The Future?
Whether this is the start of anything new is anyone's guess at this point. Competition between diesel-electric plug-in hybrids, all-electric cars, and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles will sort out the winners in the marketplace. They all offer similar benefits and increases in efficiency today. How well those technologies can be matured will determine which technology wins, or perhaps several will find their particular niches. Time will tell on that score. For now, we can be certain some kind of change is coming, and that we will see the equivalent of a slow motion format war among automobiles along the lines of Betamax/VHS or HD-DVD/BluRay.