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Question:

What are the pros and cons of hydrogen fuel cells?

I have a project for my chem 2 class and I'm having trouble finding info on the alternative fuel source, the hydrogen fuel cell. Any info (websites, info, etc.) will be helpful.

Answer:

Vehicle range would be unaffected. The down side for the fuel cells are they are expense, Platinum screens do wear out. Their average life expectancy is about 2 to 3 years of normal driving. The upside is conventional electrical systems can use the power generated so vehcile cost could be kept low. Downside is flamability, You would also have a specialized servicing requirement, so only a handful of backyard mechanics would stand a chance with one.
Pros: Very clean. Fuel cells produce electricity for just about anything, and the only waste is water vapor and a tiny bit of heat. Abundant fuel sources. The hydrogen needed can be sourced in lots of places. At the moment most of it comes as a byproduct of the fossil fuel processing, but it's very possible to source the hydrogen from water. Scaleable. Fuel cells can be used in very small things like mobile phones, through to industrial sized generators for factories and/or whole towns. Baseload power. Fuel cells are perfect companions for renewable energy like solar and/or wind, because the renewables can be producing hydrogen from water while they have a surplus of power, and when the sun goes down and the wind stops, the fuel cell can take over, for totally continuous and clean energy. Powerful and light. They can be powerful enough and light enough to be used in a car, which means we can get off our oil addiction. Cons: Costly. Being such a new technology means they are still very expensive, and more needs to happen in their commercial development before costs can come down. Hydrogen needs to be made. We can't just get hydrogen from the ground like oil, gas, or coal. We need to use energy to make the hydrogen. Because of this hydrogen is NOT an energy source, but an energy store. Storage. Hydrogen is very hard to store. It's not a compact liquid unless kept VERY cold, which wastes energy and reduces its effectiveness. Competition. The newest Lithium-oin batteries are starting to leave hydrogen/fuel cells behind as an energy store. They're cheaper, easier to store, and the car industry is already using them far more. Explosive. Well, not any more than gasoline, but the perception is that hydrogen is dangerous, which will hurt it's uptake.
The cons -- contrary to the above -- is that it takes a separate energy source to make the hydrogen to begin with, and you don't get out of it what you put into it. In other words, if you have a hydrogen cell to power your car, and that cell will take you 100 miles, you could have gone 125 miles on the power it took to make the hydrogen. It is woefully inefficient, and it will not be a viable power source except for space trael -as it is now- or as a method of storing the power from nuclear-fueled electric generators. They could also run off wind or water power, which are both free, but wind is erratic, and reloading the hydrogen would be an unpredictable proposition at best. As for water, if it wasn't erratic like wind, it would probably be reliable enough to set up your machinery as a regular hydroelectric generator and boost your efficiency -- in other words the hydrogen-generating would be superfluous. PS, haha, Hydrogen would not be taken out of the atmosphere, it would be broken down from water. This is really quite simple and a standard high school science lab gimmick.
Hydrogen often comes as a byproduct of petroleum, so it does not always remove our reliance on the black slime. But if it were created (hydrogen) from clean sources of energy powering electrolysis, then maybe. However, electric cars that are charged by clean energy solutions are still far more efficient.

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