CARMAKERS’ plans to use hydrogen as a fuel looks like it will avoid the dead end that the gas reached in keeping airships aloft. A series of announcements about hydrogen-powered vehicles at recent big car shows in Tokyo and Los Angeles have reinvigorated its claim as a fuel of the future. Hyundai could have a car in production by next year. But the drawbacks to hydrogen still threaten its re-emergence as one of the clean fuels of the future.
Getting the gas to fill up a fuel-cell tank is a more fundamental problem. Hydrogen is usually tied up in more complex molecules, such as hydrocarbons. Proponents advocate extracting it from natural gas, which is cheap in America thanks to the fracking boom. The problem is that compressed or liquefied natural gas is already being used directly in trucks and other fleet vehicles. Some carmakers have launched natural-gas version of current models, which have modified internal-combustion engines, making them far cheaper than fuel-cell alternatives.
Another source is hydrolysis, using electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. But the energy required to collect, store and convert hydrogen back to electricity means that approach “only makes sense if you use green energy,” contends Rudolf Krebs, Volkswagen’s head of electric propulsion. VW sees fuel-cells as a future backup for batteries in hybrids.
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