Hydrogen-based energy makes practical leaps forward
Ryan Scott
Hydrogen based fuel cell technology is improving and may soon be a legitimate option for consumers as an alternative to fossil fuels.
Hydrogen is “being aggressively explored as a fuel for passenger vehicles,” according to fueleconomy.gov.
Toyota recently showed a new hydrogen based vehicle in Japan which will be made available to consumers as early as 2015 according to company officials.
Fuel cell technology in vehicles goes back as far as 1966 with the GM Electrovan, but has not been commercially plausible until recently.
Ben Ferguson, Vice President of the American Hydrogen Association, believes that hydrogen can be the fuel of the future, but has some hurdles in its way.
“Hydrogen is a Universal Energy Carrier. It stores the energy that was put in to create it,” Ferguson said.
Ferguson added that he feels start-up-costs and current infrastructures could present major road blocks in the further development and use of hydrogen based fuel technologies.
Hydrogen could potentially decrease the dependency on foreign oil because hydrogen and fuel cell technology can be produced domestically according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
Hydrogen based fuel cells only produce water and heat as emissions, which is commonly argued by many as one of the key benefits of its use as an alternative fuel.
However, recent studies may point to different results.
Though fuel cells don’t require fuel for combustion like gasoline engines, lubrication oil is still necessary and according to a study conducted by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, the lubrication oil is largely responsible for particle emissions.
This would mean that fuel cell vehicles would not be “zero emission” that organizations such as Fuel Cell Today claim.
“We need to depart from being so reliant on a resource that will soon be depleted,” said James Padilla, an engineering student at ASU.
Padilla added that though he doesn’t know a lot about hydrogen specifically, there are lots of alternatives out there, but not many produce large sums of energy
