Is Hydrogen the Fuel of the Future?

For a few years now, after hearing about how battery electric vehicles will be the future of car manufacturers, I began to question that idea. I began to question this idea back in 2015 when I was in my freshman year of high school because I was at home sitting on my recliner watching T.V. where a car commercial came up. It was from Toyota and in the commercial Toyota was introducing what looked like a Prius however, it was different. It was much bigger, it looked very luxurious, plus it was also electric. In my head, I am thinking “It’s just another battery electric vehicle for the road”. Then I hear “The new 2016 Toyota Mirai that runs on hydrogen”. I then made this kind of confused face, because it was the first time I had ever heard about hydrogen being used as a fuel source. My first thoughts were how would they be able to use hydrogen as a fuel to generate electricity.

I then decided to look more into it and all that was really coming up at first was that the idea of hydrogen as a fuel source was not a good one. How hydrogen is not that great of a source, how hydrogen is very flammable, hydrogen is not very reliable, all sorts of negative responses to that idea. Then I started to read more information about hydrogen as a fuel source and I read something that caught my eye. What I read was that Hydrogen is the most abundant source in the world, but not only that Hydrogen is the most abundant source in the universe. Now that was a big eye-opener for me because it lets me know that there is no possible way to run out of it. Think of it like this, the universe as we know it is made up of 73 percent hydrogen, 25 percent helium, and the last 2 percent of the universe is everything else. For all the negative that’s been said about hydrogen as a fuel source, it sounds so much better, cleaner, and a more efficient source of fuel that will blow batteries out of the water. Therefore, “is hydrogen the fuel of the future?”. After my findings, it is safe to say that it could very well be the fuel of the future.

If you weren’t aware of how the process of how hydrogen is being used as a fuel, you would find it to be quite interesting. According to the Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Energy Association (FCHEA) titled “Fuel Cell Basics” we learn of the components of a fuel cell and how it works exactly. The news about a fuel cell could either be new to you or something you already knew. However, the first car to ever use a fuel cell were electric vehicles. The first thing you need to know is the structure of a fuel cell. These fuel cells have three parts to them, they have a cathode on the right side where the oxygens molecules will be transported to, a membrane in the middle, and an anode on the left side where hydrogen molecules will be transported to. The way this works is that there are positively charged hydrogen molecules on the anode side and on the other side where the cathode is there are negatively charged oxygen molecules and with a little help of chemistry we know that positive and negatively charged molecules attracted each other with a passion. Since oxygen is more electronegative than hydrogen, it pulls the hydrogens towards it which will lead the hydrogen passing through the membrane in the middle. Once it passes through that membrane the hydrogen molecules that were “stripped” of their electrons while they were in the anode are taken to generate electricity.

Ok time to get rid of the elephant in the room of the hydrogen bond assumption. Now, this assumption is of no surprise because of the hydrogen bomb. A very destructive bomb far scarier than that of an atomic and by far the most destructive weapon that has ever been made by man. In an article from Science titled Effects of the Hydrogen Bomb, Blake Flournoy published on April 23, 2018, gives far more insight on just what a hydrogen bomb is capable of doing. It has the power to turn the sand from the ground into glass from the tremendous heat it produced, move down a tree or building from miles away, have a blast radius of 60 miles, and reduce any living things to dust. It is everyone’s worst nightmare and luckily it is only used for testing and not in any wars. However, just because of the fear of what a hydrogen bomb is capable of, there is absolutely no correlation between a hydrogen bomb and a hydrogen-powered car. A hydrogen bomb has both nuclear fission and nuclear fusion which is the reason it causes mass destruction. Whereas, a hydrogen-powered car has neither of those things all it has is a fuel cell whose main function is to generate electricity in order to move the vehicle through the use of hydrogen. One causes harm and the other doesn’t, and besides no one would sell you a hydrogen bomb on wheels, it simply does not make any sense. It is like trying to tell someone, walking on the sidewalk, “hey I got a bridge I want to sell you” where’s the logic in that.

Now in terms of being able to reduce the CO2 (carbon dioxide) emissions that are causing climate change are produced by many different things such as cars, heavy machinery as just a couple examples that are used in everyday life. This article from McKinsey & Company titled Hydrogen: The Next Wave for Electric Vehicles? by Bernd Heid, et al, published on November 21, 2017, gives an insight into 7 different sectors on how hydrogen as a fuel source can be a great solution to combat the problem of climate change. The first 3 roles that hydrogen will allow mass renewable and power generating. Renewable energy is most commonly generated through massive wind turbines and solar panels. In addition to that, it will also be able to dispense “across sectors and regions” along with it surviving as a buffer to improve the resilience of the system. The fourth role would be that hydrogen will decarbonize transportation as a whole. Currently, fossil fuels are a huge part of the transportation sector and are accountable for more than 20 percent of the CO2 (carbon dioxide) emissions and that can be reduced with the help of cars like the Toyota Mirai, Honda Clarity, and the Hyundai Nexo are amongst to first to be “hydrogen-powered vehicles” that just like cars that run on gasoline only take about 5 minutes to fill up at a fueling station. The fifth role hydrogen will play in is decarbonizing industrial energy uses. As we know, two byproducts of using hydrogen as a fuel source are water (H2O) and heat which clearly sounds so much better compared to CO2. The sixth role hydrogen will play a big part in is decarbonizing building heat and power. Since a byproduct of hydrogen is heated, hydrogen will be able to “piggybank on existing infrastructure” to provide heat at a very low price which is great news for all businesses big or small all over the world because what business owner would not want to save some extra money so that he/she can use it to invest in their business and make it better. Lastly, the final big role hydrogen will play a part in is providing clean feedstock for industry. More than 55 million tons per year amounting to hydrogen as an industry feedstock can be “fully decarbonized”. Hydrogen could also be used to manufacture “cleaner chemicals and steel”. Don’t you see we are looking at a solution to possibly end climate change.

However, there is something interesting about hydrogen fuel. It’s not how great of a solution it can be, or how beneficial it could be, no it’s how much publicity is it getting. Just like you and, we knew nothing about hydrogen as a source of fuel. The reason is that we don’t see a commercial on the T.V, we don’t see an ad on our phone, tablet, or computer, and don’t hear anything about it in the newspaper. The fact of the matter is hydrogen is such a great source and on top of that, it is very abundant which means that there is no need to worry about it ever running out. It is pretty much an infinite supply of fuel that has a versatility to it because it doesn’t need to only be used to power a car, it can power a business, stadiums, hospitals, any form of transportations and wouldn’t destroy any industries. Yet the people don’t hear about it and to put it into perspective I conducted a survey in the apartment building in which I live. There are 14 units including mine on the side I live on and another 14 units on the other side. I would ask my neighbors if they had any knowledge about hydrogen being used as a fuel source or if they have ever heard about it somewhere. The second question I would ask is if they knew about battery electric vehicles. Out of the 28 units, 11 of those units gave me a response. All of the responses I managed to get were very similar in that the majority of them knew what hydrogen was but were not aware of hydrogen being used as a fuel. However, they all knew about battery electric vehicles to the point of how they work. I also contacted two of my cousins who are very dedicated mechanics and were not aware of hydrogen even being used as fuel. I could hear the confusion in their voice. They knew absolutely nothing about that which is not a good sign for the upbringing of hydrogen fuel. If these people who are common folk don’t know about it, the same can be said about everyone else.

On the other hand, everyone knows about battery electric vehicles. Vehicles like the Tesla, or the Nissan Leaf. Why is that? Don’t get me wrong the idea of a battery-electric car is really good but good for who exactly? In order to own a battery electric vehicle, you need to live in a house with a garage, that way you can install a charger to charge your car overnight or all day. Ok so far you would need to live in a house to install the charger because you wouldn’t be able to install a charger in an apartment cause then you would need to install a lot which would increase the price of rent. Now, what if everyone was driving a battery-electric car now you would have to install a charger everywhere that a car can park and make huge charging stations for a large number of cars to charge all at once. This idea of everyone driving a battery-electric vehicle is obviously not going to have ever happened and you want to know why? It’s simple, battery-electric cars run on lithium as a source, however, there is nowhere near enough lithium in the world for everyone to drive a battery-electric car, as they say, will happen and on top of that batteries have battery acid which is bad for the environment. And if everyone is driving a battery-electric car that means that the oil industry has died which would lay off thousands of workers leaving them without a jab. Hydrogen would be able to solve that problem because these oil industries would just have to change their line of production from oil to hydrogen and everyone gets to keep their jobs sounds great right! Still not convinced, the only two byproducts that come from the use of hydrogen is good ol’ H2O a.k.a water and heat, not CO2 emissions, and battery acid.

Now, something that everyone knows about and is a big problem is none other than climate change. This article from Nature Climate Change titled The Hydrogen Solution? by Sonja Van Renssen published on August 27, 2020, goes into detail about how hydrogen could be a solution to switch from using fossil fuels. Hydrogen will be able to store overabundance of renewable energy that the grid can’t handle, it would be able to decarbonize sectors that are difficult to electrify for example transportation of long distances and heavy machinery, and it would remove any fossil fuels that are used in chemical and fuel production. As of right now, the plan is to produce what’s called “green” or “renewable” hydrogen which is the method that every hydrogen advocate agrees is the “ultimate” goal. In this method, hydrogen is made through the process of electrolysis of water that uses renewables as power. You might be wondering how electrolysis works. Electrolysis is a favorable option for hydrogen because it uses “renewable sources”. The way this works is that electricity is used to split molecules of water into hydrogen and oxygen. All of this happens within a unit called the electrolyzer.

To be perfectly honest, I had a feeling that these were going to be the type of responses I would get. The reason I had this feeling is simple, tell me has anyone told you about hydrogen being used as a fuel? Have you ever heard about this on the news? Have you seen any commercials of a hydrogen-powered vehicle like the Toyota Mirai, Honda Clarity, or the Hyundai Nexo? I can guarantee that so many people will have the exact same answer of no. The only people who seem to really know about it are hydrogen advocates, scientists who are working on hydrogen fuel, a few different companies, and Japan because they want to become the first hydrogen economy. Hydrogen has so many benefits that it can offer the world yet hydrogen is not getting the attention that it deserves. But no, everyone only knows about battery electric vehicles being the future of the world which again will most likely not happen. Hydrogen is currently being looked at as an underdog because it keeps a lot of the traditional thing you would do with a car that runs on gasoline since you can park your car on the street or in your garage and not have to worry about charging it overnight because you can fill up the tank with hydrogen at your nearest fueling station. Not only that but we are talking about a better economy and a net-zero with no CO2 going up into the atmosphere which inevitably heats up the planet. With all these benefits that come from the use of hydrogen, it is safe to say hydrogen is in fact the fuel of the future with which I strongly agree but the real question is, do you agree? Go with a method of using battery electric vehicles which could solve the problem of climate but destroy the environment with its large amount of battery acid or would you rather keep the environment clean and solve the problem of climate change and kill two birds with one stone. The choice is yours to make, so please choose wisely.