The hydrogen fuel cell cars have long been used in the twentieth century. Its unique features surpass conventional vehicles, thereby bringing a handful of hand-built cars to urban areas. Unlike traditional cars, hydrogen fuel cell cars combine hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity.
On the other hand, conventional vehicles that run on diesel or gasoline can sometimes be challenging to operate. Is this true? Well, this is real when it comes to fueling your car often. Besides, it doesn’t mean that the hydrogen car requires energy for it to function well, but instead hydrogen gas.
However, producing and converting hydrogen gas makes it possible for the car to run effectively. By so doing, it converts the hydrogen gas to electricity that later produces water and heat as a byproduct. Compared with conventional vehicles, they are fast and thus provide a more extended driving range without fuel.
Like other electric vehicles (EVs), a hydrogen fuel cell car doesn’t shut down on motion. Instead, it converts the chemical energy in the fuel to electrical energy. With this, it keeps the vehicle moving as long as there are enough electrodes (positive/negative) around the electrolyte.
Don’t get baffled knowing the best car or differences between conventional vehicles and hydrogen fuel cell cars. Here, we will walk you through the necessary things you need to know about hydrogen fuel cell cars. More so, in this article, you’ll understand how hydrogen fuel cell cars work and what is a hydrogen fuel cell car?
What Is A Hydrogen Fuel Cell Car?
The hydrogen fuel cell car is quite different from other electric vehicles. However, they are both useful as a means of transportation, but different in terms of speed, performance, and more. They are known as electric cars that generate power from several sources of chemical reactions between hydrogen and oxygen.
Moreover, there are different types of hydrogen fuel cell cars in this 21st Century. While there are many types, they all perform the same function to combine oxygen and hydrogen to produce water and electricity. Meanwhile, they are also seen as a new technology for a more environmentally friendly transport system.
Interesting Facts about Hydrogen Fuel Cell Car
The choice of car today can be relatively expensive with brands like Hyundai, Honda, and Toyota leading the market. In spite of this, there are lots of government incentives that can reduce the cost of engineers creating cheaper cars. These cars come with many features compared to battery cars. Below are the trendy features and fun facts about hydrogen fuel cell cars.
- Range Difference – Range difference is one of the factors that contribute to the success of fuel cell cars. They have a better range, unlike conventional vehicles, as well as other battery electric vehicles. Also, they can reach up to 400 miles on single refill hydrogen.
- They Are Very Quiet – Hydrogen-powered vehicles are quiet when driving. Seemingly, they do not have any mechanical parts that can produce noise. Meanwhile, the only little noise can come from the sound of the rubber maintaining contact with the road.
- Fast to Recharge – The HFCVs (hydrogen fuel cell vehicles) are more immediate to recharge when you are embarking on a journey. They run within 5 minutes, unlike the battery-electric cars that take up to an hour before you can resume your journey.
- Less Dense with No Spare Tire – Hydrogen is less dense than gasoline. This is why it doesn’t have enough space for a spare tire. Meanwhile, they have a bigger tank that takes up space, but your space tire can still be mounted on the rear door.
- Non-Emissions of Dangerous Gases into the Atmosphere – The hydrogen fuel cell cars do not emit dangerous gases into the atmosphere. Instead, they use heat and water to reduce environmental pollution. Since hydrogen is one of the great things in the universe, turning it to a liquid state requires more energy.
- They Rely On Hydrogen To Function Well – This also constitutes another fun fact of using the hydrogen fuel cell cars. They run on hydrogen, which is an element that you can find anywhere in the universe. More so, they have fuel cells that split the hydrogen atom and produces the force needed to operate the car.
- HFCVs Are worth Buying – The hydrogen fuel cell cars are quite expensive more than the traditional combustion vehicles but are worth buying. For example, you can get the latest Hyundai for about $20,000. Meanwhile, the Hyundai ix35 fuel cell car can cost you up to $86,000 to purchase.
- They Are Very Clean – Hydrogen generation vehicles uses renewable energy sources like solar for movement. With this, it creates a nice look on the inside, as well as the vehicle’s body. More so, the chemical reactions between hydrogen and oxygen embrace scalability to ease the engine.
- Weather Effect – Unlike other types of conventional cars, hydrogen fuel cell cars do not deteriorate in cold weather. This means that the range of fuel cells does not depend on the outside temperature for significant movement or performance.
- Battery Lifespan – A typical battery lifespan of the hydrogen fuel cell cars last for 150,000 miles. In this case, it equates up to about 83g/km of C02. Meanwhile, when the battery charges overtime on a journey, it can also deliver up to 124g/km of C02.
How Hydrogen Fuel Cell Cars Works?
With electric cars growing popularity in recent times, most manufacturers are expecting you to take the advantage. However, for you to purchase a new vehicle, you need to understand how it works. Similarly, there is a need to consider your environment and the exact amount at hand.
Additionally, when we talk about electric cars, they include plug-in hybrids, battery electrics, fuel cells, and many more. So the energy produced from the chemical reaction of hydrogen and oxygen is run through a fuel cell, thereby producing electricity.
This, however, produces what is known as the electrolysis that runs from an electrical current through water. On the other hand, converting hydrogen gas to electricity allows the car to function correctly without creating tailpipe pollution. Also, hydrogen pumps into the tank just like the gas vehicle.
Nonetheless, fuel cell works like conventional car batteries. The only difference is that it doesn’t run down or needs charging. As fuel as fuel is supplied, the hydrogen fuel cell cars keep producing electricity and heat.
Advantages Of Using Hydrogen Fuel Cell Cars
There is no limitation to where the hydrogen fuel cell cars can be used. They are mostly used in a wide range of applications, like emergency backup applications, transportation, material handling, and many others. Also, they have several benefits over conventional combustion vehicles. Below are the benefits or advantages of using hydrogen fuel cell cars.
- They Operate At Higher Efficiencies – One of the advantages of using hydrogen fuel cell cars is that they operate at a higher efficiency than combustion engines. Also, it can convert chemical energy with efficiencies up to 60% and more.
- Lower Emissions – Hydrogen fuel cells have lower emissions compared to other electric cars. Besides, they emit only water; therefore, there are no carbon dioxide emissions and air pollutants that cause health problems.
- Durability – Durability is one of the critical factors of using fuel cell cars. They have a lifetime that meets up with application expectations. Under a realistic operating conditions, the hydrogen fuel cell cars durability target up to 40,000/50,000 hours.
- Low Competition – Due to the production cost, there is little competition in the market place. Unlike the battery or conventional type, the most expensive part of the fuel cars is the cost to build and maintain the hydrogen.
- Reduced Air Pollution – Reduction of air pollution also constitutes another benefit of fuel cell cars. This is because they produce hydrogen from fossil fuels, thereby causing a low amount of air pollution, unlike conventional vehicles.
- Oil Dependence – Hydrogen fuel car vehicles could reduce our dependence on oil since hydrogen is common in the universe, and it’s derived from domestic sources. More so, some of these sources include natural gas and coal with renewable sources like water, as well as agricultural waste.
- Simple Maintenance – The maintenance of hydrogen fuel cell cars is simple. This is because they have few moving parts in the system, and the operating times are much longer than batteries.
- Elimination of Greenhouse Gases – Most of the fuel cells operate silently, as they come from the electrolysis of water driven by renewable energy. In this case, using fuel cell cars eliminate greenhouse gases over the whole system.
Conclusion
The fuel cells have various advantages and unique features compared to conventional vehicles. Also, hydrogen fuel cars are the future of the transport system. So, owning and driving fuel-cell vehicles is the best decision to make in this digital world. Nonetheless, they might be quite expensive but offers clean and reliable alternative energy.
Credits for featured image via: napaonline.com