Reproduced below unabridged, are two contrasting opinions on the topic of hydrogen powered vehicles.
The pro’s were published in a recent TopAuto post while the con’s were extracted from a contribution to Quora Digest.
First, the pro’s.
How South Africa could benefit from hydrogen-powered cars
GREEN hydrogen is a clean source of fuel that offers a number of advantages over battery-powered electric vehicles, and South Africa is poised to become a global player in its production.
Hydrogen fuel is produced as a by-product of water electrolysis which separates water, or H2O, into oxygen and hydrogen.
The term “green” is used to distinguish hydrogen produced from renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, and hydropower, as opposed to “grey” and “brown” hydrogen which is produced using natural gas and coal, respectively.
While any type of hydrogen can be put into a fuel-cell car, the global demand is primarily for green hydrogen as a form of clean fuel to help facilitate a transition to zero-emissions transport.
Advantages of green hydrogen
The first and most immediate advantage of hydrogen is that it is the most common element in the universe.
While there are still challenges associated with its extraction and refinement, hydrogen has the potential to be an abundant and renewable source of energy, both for cars and in our everyday lives.
Hydrogen is also far more energy-dense than any fossil fuel, which means hydrogen fuel-cell cars have the potential to be more powerful than their internal combustion engine (ICE) counterparts, though the displacement of car’s engine will still be the main determinant of performance.
Another benefit of this energy density is that hydrogen cars have ranges that are much more in line with ICE vehicles, compared to many battery-electric cars.
One of the most common concerns about electric cars is their lack of range compared to ICE vehicles.
One hydrogen car – the Toyota Mirai – advertises a maximum range of 647km, which is better than what most of the battery-electric cars currently available in South Africa are capable of, though this gap is likely to narrow as battery technologies continue to improve.
Another concern of battery-electric cars is their long charging times and a potential lack of charging infrastructure.
The fuel cells that convert hydrogen fuel into energy can be recharged in under five minutes, and the car itself can be refuelled at a hydrogen fuel pump just like an ICE vehicle, giving hydrogen cars a notable advantage over battery-electric vehicles which can take anywhere from 20 minutes to several hours to charge, depending on the model and type of charger used.
This also means that hydrogen fuel stations can be implemented almost anywhere that a traditional fuel station could, albeit at a greater cost as hydrogen requires more complicated storage and transportation than petroleum.
How South Africa could benefit
The advantages of green hydrogen fuel could make it a far more practical alternative to battery-electric vehicles in South Africa, given its much closer resemblance to the fossil fuels that we are used to.
The country also stands to benefit from the growing demand for hydrogen fuel as it transitions away from its dependence on fossil fuels, especially coal.
South Africa’s access to the ocean, as well as numerous solar and wind projects, means the country is in a prime position to become a major producer and exporter of green hydrogen.
“Green hydrogen is South Africa’s next great export opportunity,” said Gladys Nabagala, director of the Energy Transition Advisory Group at Royal HaskoningDHV.
Sites for production or export of green hydrogen have already been identified at Saldanha, Boegobaai, Cape Town, Gqeberha, Ngqura, East London, Durban, and Richards Bay, she said.
An additional benefit of green hydrogen production is that it creates desalinated water as a by-product, which could help to alleviate water-stressed communities.
“With petrol prices on the rise and unemployment figures increasing again, there’s no better time than now to rethink how we can transition towards cleaner energy while also creating new industries that could employ more South Africans,” said Nabagala.
The global green hydrogen market size is expected to surpass R1.3 trillion by 2030 while this sector is set to experience a continued annual growth rate of 54% from 2021 to 2030.
Author undisclosed. Reprinted from TopAuto 16 June 2022.www.topauto.co.za/features/48244/how-south-africa-could-benefit-from-hydrogen-powered-cars-/?source=newsletter
Now the con’s
(From Steve Baker, a US resident.)
There has been some splash in the media about hydrogen-powered vehicles. These are really cool because when hydrogen burns all you get is pure water. What small problem do these media raves overlook?
It’s not really a “small” problem…it’s THREE HUGE problems:
#1 MANUFACTURING:
Hydrogen has to be manufactured. It’s not like oil or coal…it’s more like gasoline – it has to be extracted from something else.
Almost all hydrogen produced in the world is made by a process called “Steam reformation” which uses fossil fuels (coal or natural gas, typically) to extract hydrogen from steam. It is massively wasteful and pollutes just as badly as refining and burning gasoline.
So hydrogen produced this way is NASTIER than fossil fuels, twice as expensive, less convenient, etc., etc.
The other process is to use electricity to perform electrolysis of water. This process is as clean as the electricity you use – but it does consume VAST amounts of electricity. In the USA, hydrogen by electrolysis is only made where exceptional standards of purity are requires because the prices are off the charts.
So what happens is that proponents of hydrogen technology – point to the electrolysis process and proclaim “IT’S A 100% GREEN TECHNOLOGY!!” – but then they do the ‘bait and switch’ thing and actually provide nasty steam-reformation hydrogen – which is actually the LEAST green technology we have for powering cars!
Battery electric vehicles are INCREDIBLY efficient because you’re not converting electricity to hydrogen (inefficiently) – then compressing it for storage (inefficiently), shipping (inefficiently), storing, dispensing – and then converting hydrogen (inefficiently) back into electricity in a fuel cell car.
#2 DISTRIBUTION:
Where are the hydrogen filling stations? Well, outside of Japan, there are a few in Europe, a few in San Francisco and LA and a couple in New York.
That’s pathetic.
With an electric car – if there is a shortage of charging stations, you can plug it into any electrical outlet.
But with a hydrogen car – you need a hydrogen filling station.
Suppose you live in (say) Dallas. Your hydrogen car has a 600 mile range – but the nearest filling station is more than 1000 miles away. Ooops!
Suppose you’re an entrepreneur and decide to build a hydrogen filling station in Dallas. How many customers will you have?
Well…zero. Not one single one. Not even people who live close to you are going to buy a hydrogen car because they can only drive 300 miles in any direction before they have to turn around and come back again because you’re the only filling station for over 1,000 miles.
So the only way for hydrogen to take off would be for someone to spend maybe $100 billion on hydrogen filling stations – and have them sit mostly idle for 10 years while the number of hydrogen cars slowly builds up to the point where you can be profitable.
That’s not a business model that ANY company would undertake.
#3 THE CARS:
The biggest selling hydrogen car is the Toyota Mirai. It costs $75,000 and has a 0–60 time of …oh…9.2 seconds. Toyota makes a $60,000 loss on every one they sell.
Geez! You seriously expect me to pay luxury sports car prices for something that’s that dog slow?
Maintenance is also a major problem. Because the hydrogen has to be reacted with oxygen from the air – you need very good air filters. There is an expensive catalyst that needs replacement fairly frequently – and some kind of organic membrane inside the fuel cell that also needs regular replacement. None of those things are cheap – and you need a specialist Toyota dealership to do the work (and there isn’t one in Dallas…so see problem #2)
CONCLUSION:
It is absolutely blindingly obvious that hydrogen is a HORRIBLE way to go.
Battery electric cars are no longer “The Way Of The Future” – they’re already here – and given the way sales are spiralling – we’ll be all converted over in 10 years with gas and diesel vehicles becoming rarer and rarer until you wake up one day and realize that you haven’t seen one for a couple of years now.
EV’s are better in every single way – cheaper to buy, cheaper to run, cheaper to maintain, more acceleration, more top speed, less fuss to recharge/refuel, simpler…
Honestly, finding one single thing that’s good about a hydrogen car is one hell of a struggle.
Comments from Steve Baker, Senior Software Engineer 2013–present, BSc in Cybernetics, University of Kent Graduated 1977. Lives in Las Cruces, New Mexico, has had 135.3million content views, 4.3million this month via Quora Digest – www.quora.com
(A more balanced article can be read at https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/electric-cars/93180/hydrogen-fuel-cells-do-hydrogen-cars-have-future. Ed)