Fueling the Future with Hydrogen
Posted by Rishab Lanka on
Fueling the Future with Hydrogen
~ By Abhinay Kulkarni
History
The Industrial Revolution sowed the seeds of growth and development but also gave space for weeds like pollution and climate crisis to grow. The Industrial Revolution gave us many gifts, the ICEVs or Internal Combustion Engine Vehicles being one of them. These ICEVs have revolutionised the transport industry and have been an immense help in getting from place A to place B. But as these combustion engines use fuels like petrol, diesel, gasoline and so on, their combustion leads to the formation of carbon dioxide and sometimes carbon monoxide due to incomplete combustion. These exhaust gases and 鈥榚missions鈥� from combustion vehicles, cause, what is famously known as 鈥楾he Greenhouse Effect鈥�
A new solution for reducing emissions and hence climate change is the use of Electric Vehicles.
However, Electric vehicles (EVs) are not a new invention and have existed for decades, since these vehicles were invented in the late 1820s. This was around the same time ICEs had hand cranks which caused various safety issues to the users. EVs were considered a good alternative as they did not need hand cranks and were very safe to drive, but the birth of the toggle ignition in the early nineteen hundreds led the EVs to be put on a back burner. Now once again EVs can potentially replace ICEs, however, while no greenhouse gas emissions directly come from EVs, they run on electricity. And electricity still is, on a large scale, produced from fossil fuels in many parts of the world. The manufacturing process of these batteries is also an environmentally taxing process. Hence in the case of EVs a new 鈥楾oggle ignition鈥� has emerged in the figurative sense, and that is the use of fuel cells in vehicles.
What are fuel cells?
Fuel cells are electrochemical cells that convert the chemical energy of a fuel and an oxidizing agent into electricity through a pair of redox reactions. Fuel cells differ from batteries as they supply electricity as long as there is fuel and an oxidizing agent present. So, a new quest for finding the most eco-friendly fuel for these fuel cells has begun. The answer was hiding right under our noses, well, it can鈥檛 be hiding if it's everywhere. It even powers the sun and all other stars. The answer is hydrogen, or at least green hydrogen.
Green Hydrogen is the hydrogen generated using 100% renewable energy but due to the cost of preparing it, green hydrogen isn鈥檛 viable yet. So, either grey hydrogen or blue hydrogen is used. In a fuel cell, hydrogen and oxygen undergo a redox reaction in the presence of a catalyst to produce electricity with water as a by-product. Due to this hydrogen fuel cells have no harmful emissions. So, how does this technology get you to your favorite restaurant? Well, this job is done by Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles or FCEVs.
These FCEVs as you might have guessed use the electricity generated by the fuel cell to power an electric motor in a car. These fuel cells can be of various types but the use of hydrogen fuel cells shows immense potential.
Hydrogen fuel cells, in comparison to fossil fuel technologies, are more powerful and energy-efficient; they are compliant with zero-emission initiatives and are renewable. They also have faster charging times and produce no noise pollution. This makes them a viable solution to most of our climate problems, but then, why haven鈥檛 hydrogen fuel cells been implemented till now? Well, for any technology that has ever existed, there are a set of advantages and disadvantages, and for a technology to be implemented, it is a given that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. While hydrogen fuel cells have a lot of advantages, they are also costly to produce with the use of platinum and iridium as catalysts. The storage of hydrogen is also a complex process, and since hydrogen is highly flammable, it brings a plethora of safety concerns. Considering these disadvantages, it is evident that there is still a long way for us to see hydrogen fuel cells being adapted in day-to-day life.
That being said, there are a few visionaries who are pioneering the use of hydrogen fuel cells and have made commendable contributions towards the initiative of zero emissions by use of this technology.
Toyota
No blog or article about hydrogen fuel cells vehicles is complete without mentioning Toyota. Toyota has spearheaded the use of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles with the introduction of 鈥淭oyota Mirai鈥� in 2014. This company has now moved on to the use of hydrogen FCEVs in commercial applications with hydrogen trucks and buses which could help cut down emissions in commercial transport.
Airbus
Another company that we should watch for in the race for sustainability is Airbus, with its zero-e initiative Airbus plans to revolutionize the aviation industry by 2035. It has already made immense headway on the journey towards realizing this goal with the successful testing of the hydrogen fuel cell system designed for a large-scale aircraft.
Switch Maritime
Switch Maritime is a company that is working on making maritime transport emissions-free. The Sea Change is Switch鈥檚 flagship zero-emissions ferry which is powered by hydrogen fuel cells and batteries. This initiative is promising as the vessel is complete and fully operational. Hydrogen fuel technology can be a tremendous help in curbing the issues like water pollution and can help in reducing noise pollution alongside cutting down on emissions.
As the world moves optimistically towards a sustainable world, hydrogen fuel cells, along with other green technologies instill a sense of hope, quite like the first rays of sunlight after a storm. This shift starts with every one of us embracing and being aware of green solutions like hydrogen fuel cells. Though the goal of a world with zero emissions is not as far out of reach as it used to be, the journey towards it is still full of obstacles. With each new advancement in technology, we can move towards a widespread implementation of sustainable technologies.
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