Hydrogen is a clean and efficient energy source. It is being used to power hydrogen cars and buses in several environmentally conscious countries. Hydrogen cars are very clean. They have zero emission and they emit only water vapor. As an example, the city of Aberdeen in Scotland is using hydrogen buses to reduce emission and boost air quality at the city centre.
As energy carrier, hydrogen stores and delivers energy efficiently. Hydrogen cars uses fuel cells to convert the chemical energy stored in the hydrogen into electricity, whereas electric cars use the electricity stored in the car batteries to power the electric motors.
Although many compounds, especially hydrocarbons and water, contain lots of hydrogen atoms, free hydrogen is very scarce in nature. Our air has only .00005% of free hydrogen. Currently most hydrogen is produced from fossil fuel by stripping off the hydrogen atoms from the hydrocarbons. Therefore, hydrogen cars are not considered as totally green.
To make hydrogen cars truly green, people are considering using green hydrogen. Green hydrogen is hydrogen which is produced using electricity generated from renewable energy resources such as wind, solar and geothermal.
New Zealand is currently experimenting powering hydrogen cars using hydrogen produced using geothermal resources.
Toyota expects 30% of vehicles to be hydrogen powered by 2050.
Jamin Djuang
21 February 2018
