Hydrogen Or Electric Cars?

Apart from the growing concern over sustainability and greenhouse gases, it has been shown that gas-powered vehicles emit many chemicals into the air which are now known to cause cancer in human beings, aside from contaminating the atmosphere with other by-products of burning fossil fuels. The Environmental Protection Agency and the California Air Resources Board have now introduced the Clean Air Act in an attempt to reduce the amount of smog caused by too many automobiles in the cities. The time has clearly arrived for the hydrogen or electric cars to be introduced onto the streets around the world, despite the fact that this is, in fact, a retrospective step. When automobiles were first introduced they were powered by an electrical charge. This gradually changed during the 1920s when the combustion engine was developed to run on gasoline.

To ensure adequate power is available during the day for journeys, an electric car needs to be plugged into the mains during the night in order for the batteries to be recharged. This usually provides enough energy for the car to run up to 150 miles, after which a small subsidiary conventional engine has been designed to take over. Despite the fact that a subsidiary engine running on gas is incorporated into the design of electric cars, this is simply a safety feature to ensure you can get home when the electricity has all been used. Other cars, such as the Toyota Prius, are hybrid cars which have been designed with a braking system that creates a charge of energy from friction when the brakes are applied. This energy is stored in a bank of batteries in the car and can be released as needed. While similar, these hybrid cars have an engine designed to run on either gas or electrical power and fulfil a different specification to the electric designed car.

Aside from the hybrid and electric versions of cars for a sustainable future, the Los Alamos National Laboratory has been researching the possibility of utilising hydrogen to fuel the cars of the future. The research involves the use of Polymer Electrolyte Membrane fuel cells and Direct Methanol Fuel Cells and also the use of an electrolyser which can release hydrogen from pure water [H2O] and electricity. The benefit to hydrogen cars is 0% emissions, with just water vapour being released into the air, eliminating 1 ½ tons of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere every year. Although Honda produced a prototype hydrogen car in 2005, more recently, in June 2008 it began production on the FCX Clarity, a four-seater car to run on a combination of hydrogen fuel cells combined with oxygen, with water vapour as the sole emissions.

Hydrogen cars are being heralded as the cars of the future but is there a cost to pay? Fossil fuels still provide the source of most of the world’s hydrogen and, until technology is able to perfect hydrogen production in sufficient amounts to countermand this problem, the savings to motorists are likely to be debatable. Another cause for concern is the so-called zero emissions advertised by the manufacturers. What they do not tell you is that the carbon dioxide emissions are actually in excess of those produced by diesel cars currently on the road.