Hydrogen fuels the ride-Science Saturday.

Science Saturday is back with our science geek and correspondent Charlie Keeble. Here we look at the technological advances of hydrogen fuel cells and how they have a leading edge in the green technology revolution. They also have a better advantage over electric vehicles. 

Last year in Science Saturday I covered the famous Essex engineer and inventor Francis Thomas Bacon for his oxygen-hydrogen fuel cell. This electro-mechanical contraption produces electricity from hydrogen gas and this also produces water as a by-product. It is my most favourite piece of green technology, which can make good use of a mixed energy economy. It is clever enough to be used by all sorts of people regardless of the their socio-economic status and it can be produced in a way that does not rely on completely rebuildingcurrent infrastructure. Also it can produce water and electricity in a clean, safe and sustainable way that can be bottled if it’s stored properly. So you can get two useful products out of it that are vital for people and their needs. 

Remarkably the oil and gas industry companies like Shell and BP are investing in hydrogen themselves. They don’t see hydrogen and green energy as a threat to their business, but as a new product to invest into their energy portfolio that can provide their customers with alternative fuels. They know from history that when a political situation or new invention comes along they have to adapt to avoid losing their business or an energy crisis. Shell set up it’s first hydrogen refuelling station in Britain in 2017 located at Cobham on the M25. A year later they opened up another one in Beaconsfield on the M40.

Shell Hydrogen refuelling station on the M40 in Beaconsfield.

At the moment the current trend in eco-cars is dominated by electric battery powered vehicles. Companies like Tesla, Kia, Volkswagen and Nissan are currently the leading brands of the electric car in Britain with 270,000 vehicles sold in 2022. 

In contrast the hydrogen fuel cell car is lagging well behind, and despite my research I can not find the number ofhydrogen cars sold in the UK. But I can reveal that the hydrogen economy in Britain is still a cottage industry. The Tees Valley Hydrogen Transport Hub is the biggest hydrogen production facility in the UK making over 50% of the country’s hydrogen fuel. It is expected that the hydrogen infrastructure will increase it’s capacity and influence in Britain gradually until the cost of running it will be more advanced and cost effective for ordinary people to afford. 

There are currently only 15 hydrogen refuelling stations in Britain, with 3 of them based in London. Compared to 40,500 electric charging points in Britain, which makes the electric car the dominate ecocar in the country. But electric batteries have their limitations and are prone to wearing down and losing their holding capacity over time. This is because the lithium power cells that make up the battery’s structure lose their density due to the heat when they are charged. Thatmeans that they discharge electric current quicker as their usage continues.

At the moment there are only two models of hydrogen fuel cell cars available to buy in Britain from two major car brands. One is Japan’s Toyota, and the other is South Korea’s Hyundai. These two brands have helped their countries to become world leaders in hydrogen fuel economies in Asia. During the 2020 Tokyo Olympics the Japanese had mostly hydrogen cars and busses available to the athletes and officials to promote it’s hydrogen infrastructure to the world. There were 500 Toyota Marai cars and 100 Toyota Sora buses transporting people to the venues, all powered by hydrogen fuel cells.

The benefits of hydrogen fuel over electric cars are measured in the merits of utilisation. The hydrogen infrastructure can drastically reduce dependency on a fossil fuel economy in many different ways. As the space industry used hydrogen fuel cells to improve spaceship capabilities by prolongingwater, oxygen and electricity supplies this can be applied to the automotive sector. In a hydrogen fuel cell the energy generates water vapour as a by-product, which can also be condensed into water for the car’s cooling systems and for the occupants to have a supply of drinking water. So the hydrogen fuel cell is practically efficient in many more ways than providing drive for people. 

There is also a difference in weight in these two types of vehicles. Electric batteries make up a third of the weight of the vehicle. The Tesla Model 3 has a battery weight of 1000 lbs of the car’s 3500 lbs, but the Toyota Marai’s hydrogen fuel cells weighs 550 lbs of the car’s 4000 lbs. That makes a hydrogen fuel cell lighter and it weighs about only one-eight of the car’s weight. The hydrogen fuel cell is made up of fewer rare Earth metals making them cheaper to produce on mass, which means that you do not have to scavenge for so many materials like cobalt and lithium that electric batteries demand in greater supply. 

There is also the refuelling process that is more efficient and convenient for hydrogen car users. The hydrogen is in the form of compressed gas which is stored onsite at a refuellingstation and you can fill the car up with fuel in the same manner as a petrol or diesel vehicle. There is one major difference here in how it is distributed. Because hydrogen is a dense gas it’s sold using a measure of weight instead of fluid capacity, which is either in kilograms or pounds instead of litres and gallons. Hydrogen currently costs about £12 per kilo. The Toyota Marai can take 4.7 kilograms of hydrogenand has a range of 270 miles if filled with a full tank. That is £56.40 worth of fuel and it doesn’t need a long and lengthy charging time that you need to do with an electric car. The Tesla Model 3 takes 15 minutes to charge on a Teslasupercharger, and 3 – 5 hours on a 11-22 kW destination charger such as the types seen at restaurants and public car parks. 

It would be worthwhile to mention in defence of hydrogen the myths about hydrogen being a dangerous fuel. I am not saying that hydrogen is a problem free energy source, as it isn’t without it’s risks like any other technology. One of the most famous depictions of hydrogen being a bad form of energy is from the Hindenburg airship disaster in 1937. Although the hydrogen ignited somehow and sent the airship up in smoke, the hydrogen didn’t spontaneously combust. Besides the car fuel tank isn’t even made of canvas like the airship’s gasbagsbecause they are made of carbon fibre and indestructible materials. Even if there is a leak of hydrogen gas it won’t burn, it will just dissipate rapidly as it rises into the air before it causes trouble. Using the Hindenburg to discredit hydrogen is an invalid example. Hydrogen is safe providing you store it properly and manage it carefully. 

The production process of hydrogen fuel is also very clever because it can be produced in many different ways and the methods mean you can make it anywhere and on a smaller land area than a petrochemical plant. The biggest production method of hydrogen gas is steam methane reforming (SMR) that involves using natural gas, which is mostly methane (CH4). This process involves heating the gas to 700 – 1100 Celsius in presence of steam and a nickel catalyst, which breaks up the methane molecules to give carbon monoxide and molecule hydrogen (H2). This type of hydrogen is called grey hydrogen.

Talking of coloured hydrogen, there are also other colours that include blue, green, black, turquoise, pink and yellow. Each of these types of hydrogen indicate which production method is used to make them. Black or brown hydrogen are where the carbon produced by steam methane reforming is not capturedand released into the atmosphere. Blue hydrogen on the other hand refers to when the carbon produced in the process is captured and stored underground.

Green hydrogen is a carbon neutral method of hydrogen production. It consists of splitting water in it’s compound form (H2O) and capturing it’s components water and hydrogen. This process uses electrolysis to split the elements into these components and can be done at temperatures of 50 – 80 Celsius, but it’s more expensive to make hydrogen this way due to the amount of electricity needed and water has less hydrogen in it than methane. You need 5.7 mega watts per hour (MWh) to make grey hydrogen but 39.4 MWh to make green hydrogen. It is only green hydrogen if the electricity used is generated by wind turbines or solar power. If it’s made using solar power then it is sometimes referred to as yellow hydrogen.

There is also turquoise hydrogen that is currently an experimental type of hydrogen production and apparently not ready for scaling up. It involves methane pyrolysis which creates solidified carbon as a by product that can be used to increase soil fertility or making tyres. Pink hydrogen is produced in the same way as green hydrogen, but uses nuclear power instead of renewables. 

If ever I bought my first ecocar I would want it to be driven by a hydrogen fuel cell. Japan and South Korea have shown that it’s possible for a hydrogen revolution to make an ecofriendly industrial economy that Britain can follow. I think that hydrogen has been so vastly underutilised in Europe and America that we are not as advanced we appear to be. In a hopeful and inventive way hydrogen can power British industries in many alternating creative ways. I am hopeful thatin the future it will surpass electric vehicles as the supreme automotive machine on the roads and power our homes.

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