There is an old joke that hydrogen (and hydrogen cars) are the future and always will be. The phrasing has changed from one hater, critic or denier to the next, but the sentiment is the same.
And I beg to differ on this statement. As I test drove a Mirai fuel cell vehicle (pictured above) at the Toyota of Orange, California dealership on July 30, 2015, in anticipation of the rollout of the commercial vehicle in October this year, it’s become apparent that hydrogen cars are now.
Hyundai has been leasing their Tucson FCEV for over 1 year now in the U. S. and soon Toyota will be selling their fuel cell vehicle on American soil as well. And as this joke has become irrelevant and obsolete I was interested in doing a little research on who used to tell humorous jab and those that are still telling it.
Here is a list of what I have found:
Past Critics and Deniers
2004 – http://issues.org/20-3/romm/ – They Hype about Hydrogen from Joseph Romm
2006 – – The Death of Hydrogen? Fuel Cells, Marketing and the Future.
2007 – http://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/the-hydrogen-hoax – The Hydrogen Hoax
2009 – https://ecobarons.wordpress.com/hydrogen-blast-the-fuel-of-the-future-and-it-always-will-be/ – Hydrogen Blast: The fuel of the future… and it always will be
2009 – http://www.thecarconnection.com/news/1020575_electric-cars-are-coming-hydrogen-maybe-not-so-much – Electric Cars are coming – Hydrogen cars maybe not so much
2009 – http://www.technologyreview.com/news/413475/q-a-steven-chu/ – U.S. Energy Secretary, Dr. Steven Chu says fuel cell cars have no future.
2010 – http://www.pluginamerica.org/faq/what-about-hydrogen-cars – What about hydrogen cars?
Recent Critics and Deniers
2013 – http://www.wired.com/2013/10/elon-musk-hydrogen/ – Elon Musk calls Hydrogen Bull$#T!
2014 – http://www.autoblog.com/2014/08/05/why-battery-electric-vehicles-will-beat-fuel-cells/ – Why battery electric vehicles will beat fuel cells – Hydrogen Is The Fuel Of The Future, And Always Will Be!
2015 – http://evobsession.com/hydrogen-fuel-cell-cars-fail-in-depth/ – Hydrogen Fuel Cell Cars — #FAIL, In Depth
To recap, this is just a small sampling of what the hydrogen haters have had to holler about, past and present.
But, hydrogen cars are here now. And to the hydrogen haters, deniers and critics I say, “Crow is a dish best served cold.”
Why not make refueling safer by using infrastructure for battery electric vehicles and a water hose? Imagine that your fuel cell car has a gallon of water that you fill occasionally with a hose. There is no exhaust from the fuel cell except back into the water tank. I figure there will be losses. To lengthen the life of the fuel cell, avoid problematic gases from the air. Strip the hydrogen and oxygen and store both for use in the fuel cell. Input pure oxygen and pure hydrogen into the fuel cell throwing in perhaps a little something non harmful like nitrogen to avoid explosion hazards. Use the best storage technology available for both the hydrogen and the oxygen. If laser metal hydride is used proposed by plasma kinetics, there needs to be a lithium ion battery and a microwave process supported on the vehicle. Obviously the hydrogen will have to be lasered off the metal hydride disks. The beauty is, the battery doesn’t have to be large and solid storage of hydrogen is more efficient than gaseous storage. I don’t know how much electricity we are talking here, but this would make fuel cell cars compatible with electric charging stations in Oregon and much safer, even through gaseous storage of hydrogen is already safe. If a system like this won’t fit on a car, it might work on a semi truck.
Hi Michael, I do like the idea of plug-in hydrogen fuel cell vehicles that can run the first 30 or so miles on battery power (such as to work) and use the fuel cell for longer drives and road trips. Right now the industry is focused on compressed hydrogen gas but perhaps in the future solid or liquid hydrogen carriers may be a possibility, especially for larger vehicles.