Hydrogen

It is the most abundant fuel in the universe and when you burn it the only byproduct of the combustion reaction is water. More than this it has three times the potential energy than petroleum so the question really becomes, why are we not using it to power everything? Well there are several answers to that question, but the most surprising one is we are already.

Meet the 2008, yes you heard that correctly Honda FCX Clarity. To be clear this is not a concept, this car has been on sale in form or another since 2008 and is a car that runs off of hydrogen fuel. It has a fuel cell power plant which powers an electric motor. It is essentially all the benefits of an electric car that you can fill refill in five minutes. That's also correct, five minutes. You can pull up to a hydrogen pump, plug in the fuel line and five minutes later you have a tank that will take you between 200-400 miles depending on the model you own.

Now the fuel is about twice the price per volume of gasoline right now, but even so, with the fuel economy achievable by this system, you can go twice as far per gallon with the modern version of this car clocking in a 66 miles per gallon. With a base price of just under $35,000 dollars so far Honda has around 1100 of these cars on the road. Admittedly that is still 10,000 more than the equivalent Honda Accord and currently the car is only available in California. However, Honda is offering 15,000 dollars bonus in fuel with your purchase of a brand new Clarity. Yes, they essentially will make up the cost of the special vehicle in free fuel. Now I am sure that deal will not go on forever, so as oil becomes more expensive and scarce could this be the answer?

Elon Musk does not think so, quoted as calling the technology foolish. But why, why would it not work and why would you prefer to use batteries that take so much longer to charge than use this proven technology. Besides the Honda, Hyndai also has a production hydrogen car they are currently selling and some cities use the technology to power buses for public transport and many businesses have converted forklifts to run off of hydrogen. Toyota announced this week a hydrogen combustion engine that is even more traditional in application but still powered by hydrogen.

The issue is not the technology itself but the prohibitive cost of processing the hydrogen. Hydrogen likes to stick to things as an element and can only be removed through the expenditure of energy. Meaning you have to spend some to get it. Removing Hydrogen from sea water is done through a process called electrolysis and you can actually do the experiment yourself at home if you want to try it (watch the video). So from the perspective of some, why spend energy (money) to produce and distribute the hydrogen, when you could just plug in your car at home for less.

Considering most people are willing to spend money for convenience the answer is more complex than you might think. The question becomes how expensive is it vs how convenient. Filling up your electric vehicle in five minutes seems unlikely to ever be a possibility with lithium batteries. They will get faster, but never that fast. Most countries that produce hydrogen in large quantities use the excess electricity in their power grids to make it, so the cost is essentially a non factor. But how can you have too much energy?

During the Covid-19 pandemic a strange problem occurred in areas with renewable clean energy sources. Because of the pandemic energy needs dropped significantly which means these grids were producing more than the demand. Energy must be produced as needed because electrical energy cannot be feasibly stored in large quantities. Some propose building battery systems to store the excess, but the scales of the amounts are two large and batteries will lose charge even when not in use no matter their efficiency. This excess energy will become more of a problem in the future as more green solutions become available that are difficult to control. You cannot turn off the sun of stop the wind, so the energy is coming whether you need it or not. The best solution would be to convert the excess into a fuel that could be used to power grids during deficits, like the Texas power failure due to the freezing temperatures last year, or to power other commercial and personal power plants. Hydrogen is perfect to meet this need, it can be stored in mass quantities and will not degrade and is incredibly rich fuel source.

Given enough time to develop hydrogen will be the combustible fuel of the future. It may not power all our cars, but it will play a role in maintaining the new greener future we are building. It also just fits into the lifestyle we are used to living. We need electricity even when green sources like wind and sunshine are unattainable due to weather. It can also be used to balance out the overproduction of energy that green sources will produce on the horizon as our electronics get more and more efficient. People do not want to hear how their power was cut because there was too much electricity. Energy companies will build infrastructure around these energy needs and hydrogen will be the most efficient and easy way to meet those challenges and store energy in the future on a large scale. But because the wind will always blow again, and the sun will continue to shine there will be a surplus and from that surplus hydrogen will trickle down to the everyday consumer for a price of course. It's green, it's abundant and its renewable. It is, at least in part, the future.