Hydrogen vs Electric cars; which side are you on?
The automotive landscape is currently going through an enormous change, driven by stringent emissions targets.
Mobility will increasingly move away from internal combustion engines. Electric vehicles will have their place in the current and future market. Even so, experts believe that hydrogen fuel cell vehicles will also have their place in the near future. Important to know with this is that the production of hydrogen requires a significant amount of energy. The way that hydrogen will be produced is critical to its environmental impact. 3 colors are used to indicate the impact;
· Green hydrogen (produced using electricity from renewable energy sources)
· Blue hydrogen (also produce by fossil fuels but CO2 is captured)
· Grey hydrogen (produced from fossil fuels).
A bit more in detail (Green Power source).
With a hydrogen fuel cell, you must first convert the electricity to hydrogen via electrolysis (which is less efficient). The gas then must be compressed, chilled and transported (less efficient). The fuel cell process of converting hydrogen back to electricity is, you guessed it, less efficient. The grand total is that only 20% of the energy is available for use. (source Ulf Bossel)
On the other hand, electric cars are (comparatively) slow to recharge. They require also a significant of natural resources to build their batteries. Like with hydrogen, we should talk also about ‘Green – Blue and Grey’ to understand better their carbon footprint.
Is electric power or hydrogen power better?
This is a typical ‘it depends on’ question. One thing is sure, to refill energy a hydrogen tank is much less time consuming than refill a battery.
Has hydrogen more future for heavy duty transport or maritime or rail or flight transport? Or are their other eco-friendly types of fuel? Biodiesel, bioethanol, natural gas…
There are quite a lot of “maybes”, “depends on”, “in the (near) future” here, but what we like to know is, ‘which side are you on?’
Please let me know your opinion. And please feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions or would like discuss anything further.