Hydrogen Fuel
What is it?
Hydrogen fuel in its simplest form is a zero emission fuel that makes use of electrochemical cells or combustion in internal engines. As everyone should know, hydrogen is made up of one proton and one electron but is not naturally found by itself. It is usually found bonded to form H2O and many other elements. A hydrogen fuel cell uses a combination of hydrogen and oxygen to form electricity, heat, and water which can be used to supply an electrical system. It is similar to a battery in a sense but as long as hydrogen is supplied, the fuel cell should never run out |
Hydrogen Fuel Cell
Hydrogen fuel cells convert hydrogen into electricity through a chemical reaction. Hydrogen fuel cells require an on going supply of hydrogen or the fuel cell will stop working. All fuel cells contain an anode, cathode, and an electrolyte. The anode and cathode have catalysts that make the fuel undergo oxidation which yields hydrogen ions and electrons. The hydrogen ions are then sent through the electrolyte and simultaneously, ions are drawn from the anode to the cathode producing an electrical current. Inside the cathode, the hydrogen electrons, ions, and oxygen form water.
In California
In California, there are already have been 13 research hydrogen fueling stations, 8 public stations and 48 that have been funded and are planned to be working in the these next years. The state of California has 25 million dollars initially invested in the development of hydrogen based transportation and stations. You can see a map of all the hydrogen fueling stations currently made or in process of in California here: http://cafcp.org/stationmap . You can see the stations are highly concentrated in Southern California (Los Angeles) and Northern California (Sacramento). There are not many current available hydrogen fuel using vehicles but there is one. In Torrance, Santa Monica, Irvine, and other areas of California, the Honda FCX Clarity is available for $600 per month.
In the US
In the United States roughly 9 million metric tons of hydrogen is produced yearly. Even with the high amount hydrogen produced, a lot of it goes toward refining, treating metals, processing foods and towards uses by the company NASA. In 2003, President Bush showed high interest in a switch over to the development of hydrogen fuel cells. He wanted a much cleaner resource and wanted to rely less on the import of foreign fuels. In 2009, Obama reduced the funds spent on hydrogen fuel because actually developed would take from 10-15 years stated by Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu.
In the World
Hydrogen fuel in the world mainly consists of uses for transportation. In India, they have a group of vehicles that use a mix of hydrogen gas and CNG (compressed natural gas) that transports their athletes to the Commonwealth Games in Deli. Most vehicles in India already CNG but adding hydrogen will further improve it. In Germany, there is a certain model of a motor home that is able to run of of hydrogen due to EFOY hydrogen fuel cell inside. EFOY fuel cells are "of the grid" power supplies which allow you to go into far places that do not have electricity but you will still have a supply of power with the fuel cell.